Re: Lack of system-level excludesFile

["brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>]

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On 2024-10-03 at 00:23:17, Sparr wrote:
> Was the decision to not allow or implement such a file intentional, or
> is it just an emergent property of the way the config system works and
> how core.excludesFile was implemented? Would an implementation of a
> new feature supporting this sort of thing be worth discussing?

I wasn't part of the project when the exclude functionality was
implemented, so I can't say what the intent was, but I will note that
even CVS had ignore files.  My guess is that it wasn't seen as something
useful to implement, so nobody implemented it, but I think your argument
for doing so isn't bad.

I'll just note that typically I ignore things in the global include
which are likely to affect the environment I use, including my editor
and operating system.  So when I was tutoring an Emacs user, we
configured his machine to ignore `*~`, since his editor creates backup
files, and likewise, if I were still using macOS, I'd ignore
`.DS_Store`.

So basically, I think such a feature could be useful, but I also don't
see it as immediately necessary because the global (per-user) file is
also generally useful for this if the user is aware enough to know it
exists (which I admit they might not be).  One thing I would request is
that if you add this, you add an appropriate var to `git var` so that
people can find the location, which is important because different
versions of Git (say, Apple's vs. Homebrew's) may install the system
configuration in different locations.
-- 
brian m. carlson (they/them or he/him)
Toronto, Ontario, CA

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