Re: [PATCH] gitignore: add *.bz2 and *.cpio to top-level; clean up usr/

[Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org>]

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 03:51:41PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Sam Ravnborg wrote:
> > 
> > My concern is that we may decide to carry files in certain formats
> > in the kernel source.
> > And I see a tendency to add more and more file extensions to the
> > top-level .gitignore file.
> > 
> > It is fine as long as this is files that are:
> > 1) either generated in a lot of places
> > 2) or generated in the top-level directory
> > 
> > But files that we generate in a few arch/*/boot/ directories
> > does not belong in the top-level .gitignore file.
> > We should keep the ignore rules close to where they apply,
> > even if this may cause us to add a few more lines
> > to the relevant .gitignore files.
> > 
> 
> Honestly, I think this is ridiculous.  A single well-maintained
> .gitignore file is a *service* to the whole tree, and the last thing we
> want is git to behave differently in different subdirectories.
> 
> It is *much better* to have global rules, and add exceptions out in the
> leaves of the tree where they apply.  The question that the global
> .gitignore should answer is:
> 
> "If I have a file of type X, is the user *likely* to want to actually
> want it in the tree?"
> 
> In the case of *.gz *.bz2 *.lzma or *.cpio, I think the answer is a
> resounding "no".  Almost every architecture uses compressed files at
> some stage of its boot, and it's *always* a generated file.  A
> non-generated file is probably a patch being handled by a developer, not
> something that is meant to be in the tree.

Convinced with respect to the *.gz *.bz2 *.lzma or *.cpio extensions.
But I will continue to be reluctant to adding global entries,
as I have been beated from time to time by something
that was ignored but should not have been so.

Jaswinder - please resend your patch that
add these 4 extensions to the top-level .gitignore
and remove them from .gitignore in the rest of the tree.

Thanks,
	Sam