Re: Git attributes ignored for root directory

Gioele Barabucci [off-list ref] writes:

On 13/10/2011 00:12, Junio C Hamano wrote:
...

quoted

How would you say the same thing if the directory to be ignored weren't
"foo" but at the top-level of the working tree? There is no such level
higher than the top-level where you can say "<the name of your project>/"
in its .gitignore file.

Shouldn't `/.` or `/./` work?

I see that `/*/` in `.gitignores` successfully ignores all the
non-hidden directories in the root project directory. Another
accidental success? :)

Hannes correctly explained how /*/ works already; armed with that
knowledge, we can understand that:

        /.      would mean "what matches dot only in this directory."

        /./     would mean "what matches dot only in this directory
                but the thing that matches must be a directory."

        ./      would mean "what matches dot in this directory and its
                subdirectories, but the thing that matches must be a
                directory."

Given that "." does _not_ match the directory that has the .gitignore or
the .gitattribute file with the current system, none of the above patterns
can be used to match everything in the top level directory in a way
similar to how you can say "foo/" to match everything in "foo" directory
from the top-level directory.

The answer to your question is no, it shouldn't work.

Without adding a rule to the "Pattern Format" section as I suggested in my
message that Michael quoted in his question, that is.