[BUG] git clean -X skips a directory containing only ignored files

I am trying to use "git clean -X" to remove object files (which
are gitignored) from my source tree, but it appears to miss
object files that are in a subdirectory without any git-tracked
files:

$ git init test
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/pberry/tmp/test/.git/
$ cd test
$ mkdir foo
$ touch foo/bar.o
$ echo '*.o' > .gitignore
$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -mgitignore
[master (root-commit) 6b5ffcb] gitignore
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .gitignore
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ git clean -d -X -f
$ ls foo
bar.o

It seems to me that bar.o should have been removed, because
according to the git-clean docs, -X means "Remove only files
ignored by git", and bar.o is definitely being ignored by git.


It looks like a very similar bug was reported back in 2010, but
not fixed:
http://git.661346.n2.nabble.com/BUG-git-clean-X-behaviour-when-gitignore-has-sub-directory-entries-td5575307.html.
I've confirmed that the workaround mentioned by Jonathan Nieder
in that thread fixes my problem too (removing "dir.flags |=
DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES;" from builtin/clean.c).  However I'm
guessing from Jonathan's comments that it would be better to fix
this bug elsewhere (somewhere in dir.c perhaps).

Is anyone interested in following up on this old bug?
Alternatively, if someone could give me some guidance as to the
best way to go about fixing this bug, I would be glad to submit a
patch.

Thanks,

Paul

On 01/31/2012 12:36 AM, Paul Berry wrote:

I am trying to use "git clean -X" to remove object files (which
are gitignored) from my source tree, but it appears to miss
object files that are in a subdirectory without any git-tracked
files:

$ git init test
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/pberry/tmp/test/.git/
$ cd test
$ mkdir foo
$ touch foo/bar.o
$ echo '*.o' > .gitignore
$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -mgitignore
[master (root-commit) 6b5ffcb] gitignore
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .gitignore
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ git clean -d -X -f
$ ls foo
bar.o

It seems to me that bar.o should have been removed, because
according to the git-clean docs, -X means "Remove only files
ignored by git", and bar.o is definitely being ignored by git.


It looks like a very similar bug was reported back in 2010, but
not fixed:
http://git.661346.n2.nabble.com/BUG-git-clean-X-behaviour-when-gitignore-has-sub-directory-entries-td5575307.html.
I've confirmed that the workaround mentioned by Jonathan Nieder
in that thread fixes my problem too (removing "dir.flags |=
DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES;" from builtin/clean.c).  However I'm
guessing from Jonathan's comments that it would be better to fix
this bug elsewhere (somewhere in dir.c perhaps).

Removing DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES just happens to not trigger
this particular "bug" but breaks pretty much everything else.

As a workaround, you could explicitly add the directory to your
gitignore file.

Here's a test:

-- >8 --

Subject: [PATCH] t7300-clean: show known breakage with "git clean -d -X"

"git clean -d -X" fails for directories containing only untracked files.
Example:

	$ ls -R .
	.:
	foo
	./foo:
	bar.o
	$ cat .gitignore
	*.o
	$ git clean -d -X -f
	$ ! test -d foo || echo fail

Reported-by: Paul Berry <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Michael Schubert <redacted>
---
 t/t7300-clean.sh |    7 +++++++
 1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/t/t7300-clean.sh b/t/t7300-clean.sh
index 800b536..0b6d545 100755
--- a/t/t7300-clean.sh
+++ b/t/t7300-clean.sh

@@ -332,6 +332,13 @@ test_expect_success 'git clean -d -X' '
 
 '
 
+test_expect_failure 'git clean -d -X' '
+  mkdir -p a/b &&
+  touch a/b/c.o &&
+  git clean -d -X &&
+  ! test -d a
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'clean.requireForce defaults to true' '
 
 	git config --unset clean.requireForce &&

-- 
1.7.9.174.g356eff6

I think there were a bit of discussions on this issues just while ago too:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/188605


On 01/30/2012 06:36 PM, Paul Berry wrote:

I am trying to use "git clean -X" to remove object files (which
are gitignored) from my source tree, but it appears to miss
object files that are in a subdirectory without any git-tracked
files:

$ git init test
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/pberry/tmp/test/.git/
$ cd test
$ mkdir foo
$ touch foo/bar.o
$ echo '*.o' > .gitignore
$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -mgitignore
[master (root-commit) 6b5ffcb] gitignore
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .gitignore
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ git clean -d -X -f
$ ls foo
bar.o

It seems to me that bar.o should have been removed, because
according to the git-clean docs, -X means "Remove only files
ignored by git", and bar.o is definitely being ignored by git.


It looks like a very similar bug was reported back in 2010, but
not fixed:
http://git.661346.n2.nabble.com/BUG-git-clean-X-behaviour-when-gitignore-has-sub-directory-entries-td5575307.html.
I've confirmed that the workaround mentioned by Jonathan Nieder
in that thread fixes my problem too (removing "dir.flags |=
DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES;" from builtin/clean.c).  However I'm
guessing from Jonathan's comments that it would be better to fix
this bug elsewhere (somewhere in dir.c perhaps).

Is anyone interested in following up on this old bug?
Alternatively, if someone could give me some guidance as to the
best way to go about fixing this bug, I would be glad to submit a
patch.

Thanks,

Paul
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On 31 January 2012 06:47, Michael Schubert [off-list ref] wrote:

On 01/31/2012 12:36 AM, Paul Berry wrote:

quoted

I am trying to use "git clean -X" to remove object files (which
are gitignored) from my source tree, but it appears to miss
object files that are in a subdirectory without any git-tracked
files:

$ git init test
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/pberry/tmp/test/.git/
$ cd test
$ mkdir foo
$ touch foo/bar.o
$ echo '*.o' > .gitignore
$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -mgitignore
[master (root-commit) 6b5ffcb] gitignore
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .gitignore
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ git clean -d -X -f
$ ls foo
bar.o

It seems to me that bar.o should have been removed, because
according to the git-clean docs, -X means "Remove only files
ignored by git", and bar.o is definitely being ignored by git.


It looks like a very similar bug was reported back in 2010, but
not fixed:
http://git.661346.n2.nabble.com/BUG-git-clean-X-behaviour-when-gitignore-has-sub-directory-entries-td5575307.html.
I've confirmed that the workaround mentioned by Jonathan Nieder
in that thread fixes my problem too (removing "dir.flags |=
DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES;" from builtin/clean.c).  However I'm
guessing from Jonathan's comments that it would be better to fix
this bug elsewhere (somewhere in dir.c perhaps).

Removing DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES just happens to not trigger
this particular "bug" but breaks pretty much everything else.

Yeah, I had a feeling that might be the case.

Thanks for the test case.  BTW, you might consider changing this last
line to "! test -f a/b/c.o".  Reasoning: it is clear from the docs
that c.o should be removed by "git clean -X" (since c.o is an ignored
file).  It is less clear whether the directories a and a/b should be
removed by "git clean -X", since those directories are not in
themselves ignored, only their contents.

+'
+
 test_expect_success 'clean.requireForce defaults to true' '

       git config --unset clean.requireForce &&
--
1.7.9.174.g356eff6

On 01/31/2012 05:20 PM, Andrew Wong wrote:

I think there were a bit of discussions on this issues just while ago too:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/188605

Thanks, missed that.

Below a patch with an update for Documentation/git-clean.txt - I'm not sure
if the issue should be described more accurate.?

-- >8 --

Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: tell about "git clean -Xd" bug

"git clean -Xd" doesn't work as expected (delete all ignored files and
untracked directories), because Git's dir subsystem is skipping
directories which both aren't explicitly ignored and don't hold any
tracked files.

Tell about this limitation in BUGS.

Signed-off-by: Michael Schubert <redacted>
---
 Documentation/git-clean.txt |    8 +++++++-
 1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-clean.txt b/Documentation/git-clean.txt
index 79fb984..888c07d 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-clean.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-clean.txt

@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ OPTIONS
 	Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files.
 	If an untracked directory is managed by a different git
 	repository, it is not removed by default.  Use -f option twice
-	if you really want to remove such a directory.
+	if you really want to remove such a directory.  Also see BUGS
+	below.
 
 -f::
 --force::

@@ -63,6 +64,11 @@ OPTIONS
 	Remove only files ignored by git.  This may be useful to rebuild
 	everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.
 
+BUGS
+----
+'git-clean -Xd' doesn't work as expected for directories which don't hold
+any tracked files and aren't explicitly ignored either.
+
 GIT
 ---
 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite

-- 
1.7.9.174.g356eff6