gitignore(5): Allow "foo/" in ignore list to match directory "foo"

[git.git] / Documentation / gitignore.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index 9c83095693447a46f36299f417d71262890fb098..e847b3ba63f3fae3d5497d6ede1ea0ee416a74de 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
 
  * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
    as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the
-   higher level files (up to the root) being overriden by those in
+   higher level files (up to the root) being overridden by those in
    lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
    These patterns match relative to the location of the
    `.gitignore` file.  A project normally includes such
@@ -39,10 +39,10 @@ precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
    variable 'core.excludesfile'.
 
 The underlying git plumbing tools, such as
-gitlink:git-ls-files[1] and gitlink:git-read-tree[1], read
+linkgit:git-ls-files[1] and linkgit:git-read-tree[1], read
 `gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
 files specified by command-line options.  Higher-level git
-tools, such as gitlink:git-status[1] and gitlink:git-add[1],
+tools, such as linkgit:git-status[1] and linkgit:git-add[1],
 use patterns from the sources specified above.
 
 Patterns have the following format:
@@ -57,6 +57,13 @@ Patterns have the following format:
    included again.  If a negated pattern matches, this will
    override lower precedence patterns sources.
 
+ - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
+   purpose of the following description, but it would only find
+   a match with a directory.  In other words, `foo/` will match a
+   directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a
+   regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent
+   with the way how pathspec works in general in git).
+
  - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
    a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
    pathname without leading directories.
@@ -119,4 +126,4 @@ Frank Lichtenheld, and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 
 GIT
 ---
-Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
+Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite