Hi,
Just some comments.
When you exclude the .gitignore file all the ignored files are
reported as "Untracked files". I.e, as in:
$git clone $git_url
$ cd git
$ make
$ git checkout --reset-path=Documentation/
$ git status
When you have local changes it says that it cannot switch branches
$ git checkout --reset-path=Documentation/
error: You have local changes to 'Makefile'; cannot switch branches.
$ git checkout -h
...
--reset-path <prefixes>
reset to new sparse checkout
--add-path <prefixes>
widen checkout area
--remove-path <prefixes>
narrow checkout area
s/prefixes/sparse patterns/
Best regards,
Santi