RFC: handling of ignore files

[Scott James Remnant]

On Sun, 2005-03-27 at 19:07 +1000, Martin Pool wrote:

> Like CVS, bazaar-ng allows you to specify a list of files which are
> ignored: temporary files, backups, built programs, and so on.  The only
> effect is that they can be present in a working tree and not reported as
> unversioned.
> 
> There is a builtin default ignore list: .bzr.log, *~, #*#, *.tmp, *.bak,
> *.o, *.a, *.py[oc], {arch}, CVS, .svn, _darcs.
> 
> You can add your own patterns by creating a .bzrignore file at the top
> of the tree.  In the future I may add an option to make a file in a
> subdirectory that matches only from that point downwards.
> 
The important thing is not to make it so over-complicated that users
don't know what's going to be ignored and not-ignored at any point.

Let's work out why things need to be ignored...

1) Backup and temporary files created by users' editors.

2) Files created as a side-effect of the build process of the project.


Can anyone think of anymore?

The first is what the defaults should probably largely address, the
common set of files that users will wish to ignore and alter with some
kind of preference perhaps.

The second set is what project developers will wish to add in their
trees, in a top-level .bzrignore file.


What's the danger of over-ignoring; assuming that adding a file
explicitly overrides an ignore?  I think Robert is right and that
there's no danger or destruction caused by it.

I think I'm going to advocate .bzrignore augmenting the user and default
set of ignores; rather than overriding them...  simply because it would
mean that a user couldn't have a personal ignore for their strange
editor nobody else has ever heard of.

Scott
-- 
Scott James Remnant  "You can bugger a giraffe, if you stand on a stool;
scott at ubuntu.com         but the Hedgehog can never be buggered at all."
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