Re: [RFC/PATCH] git-add: Don't exclude explicitly-specified tracked files

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:03, Greg Brockman [off-list ref] wrote:

Currently, 'git add' will complain about excluded files, even if they
are already tracked:

$ mkdir dir && touch dir/file && cat > .gitignore <<< dir
$ git add -f dir/file
$ git status
 ...
 new file:   dir/file
 ...
$ git add dir/file
The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files:
dir
Use -f if you really want to add them.
fatal: no files added

This commit changes 'git add' to disregard excludes for tracked files
whose paths are explicitly specified on the command-line.  So in the
above example, 'git add dir/file' no longer requires a '-f'.  However,
'git add dir' does.

Signed-off-by: Greg Brockman <redacted>
---
 builtin/add.c |   19 +++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

What do people think of this behavior?  My motivation in writing this patch is
that I sometimes track files in an ignored directory, and it can be cumbersome
to remember to pass '-f' when adding them.  Related commands such as 'git add -p'
and 'git commit -a' do not require a '-f' in this case, so it feels natural to me not
to require extra user confirmation when an explicit path has been provided.

I like it. I keep a /etc in git with .gitignore "*". This would help a
lot for use cases like that. Explicitly specifying a full path should
override gitignore IMO.

I think with some tests this should be ready to go.