+ if (never_interesting) {
+ /*
+ * We have not seen any match that sorts later
+ * than the current path.
+ */
+
+ /*
+ * Does match sort strictly earlier than path
+ * with their common parts?
+ */
+ m = strncmp(match, path,
+ (matchlen < pathlen) ? matchlen : pathlen);
+ if (m < 0)
+ continue;
+
+ /*
+ * If we come here even once, that means there is at
+ * least one pathspec that would sort equal to or
+ * later than the path we are currently looking at.
+ * In other words, if we have never reached this point
+ * after iterating all pathspecs, it means all
+ * pathspecs are either outside of base, or inside the
+ * base but sorts strictly earlier than the current
+ * one. In either case, they will never match the
+ * subsequent entries. In such a case, we initialized
+ * the variable to -1 and that is what will be
+ * returned, allowing the caller to terminate early.
+ */
+ never_interesting = 0;
+ }
+