From 0f0ce0762503cb8f58a3ce07052a639e36e07ed5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Shreyansh Paliwal Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:51:58 +0530 Subject: [PATCH] doc: gitignore: clarify pattern base for info/exclude and core.excludesFile The pattern format section describes how patterns are interpreted relative to the location of a .gitignore file, but does not mention the behavior for exclude sources outside the working tree. Clarify that patterns from $GIT_DIR/info/exclude and core.excludesFile are treated as if they are specified at the root of the working tree, so a leading '/' anchors matches at the repository root. Reported-by: Dan Drake Signed-off-by: Shreyansh Paliwal Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- Documentation/gitignore.adoc | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.adoc b/Documentation/gitignore.adoc index 9fccab4ae8..a3d24e5c34 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitignore.adoc +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.adoc @@ -96,6 +96,11 @@ PATTERN FORMAT particular `.gitignore` file itself. Otherwise the pattern may also match at any level below the `.gitignore` level. + - Patterns read from exclude sources that are outside the working tree, + such as $GIT_DIR/info/exclude and core.excludesFile, are treated as if + they are specified at the root of the working tree, i.e. a leading "/" + in such patterns anchors the match at the root of the repository. + - If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both files and directories.