[RFC, MAYBE-MERGE] DEFAULT_IGNORE as an API (Re: Problem with bzr without default ignore list.)

[Martin Pool]

On 11 Jul 2006, Adeodato Sim <dato at net.com.org.es> wrote:
> The first and more important one (and the one related to Matthieu's
> mail), is the concern that the change "remove default ignores" has been
> implemented in a way that breaks the (at least defacto) API that
> DEFAULT_IGNORE was. TTBOMK, DEFAULT_IGNORE was the only way that apps
> using bzrlib had if they wanted add entries to the ignore list without
> resorting to munging .bzrignore. Which can be very desirable, think eg.
> plugins like shelf, or migration tools like tailor.

That's very creative, I hadn't realized that anyone would treat it as
writable.

> I'd ask that, please, DEFAULT_IGNORE gets redefined as an empty list,
> and get_ignore_list() in workingtree.py goes back to using it. The old
> default list can be shipped in eg. OLD_DEFAULT_IGNORE, and `ignore
> --old-default-rules` can use that. (This should be trivial, something
> along the lines of the attached patch.)

But in principle it's equally likely that plugins are depending on that
list containing the patterns and will be confused/broken if it becomes
empty...

How about adding an extra_ignores list which plugins can modify?  Or
perhaps rather than being a global variable it should be just a
parameter to add and status?

-- 
Martin