Re: [PATCH v3 11/19] dir.c: use a single struct exclude_list per source of excludes

That's a valid point.  However, the ary[0] part which assumes external
knowledge of the internal implementation can trivially be avoided by
squashing this patch onto the commit we are discussing:

diff --git a/builtin/clean.c b/builtin/clean.c
index dd89737..6e21ca6 100644
--- a/builtin/clean.c
+++ b/builtin/clean.c

@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ int cmd_clean(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	static const char **pathspec;
 	struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
 	struct string_list exclude_list = STRING_LIST_INIT_NODUP;
+	struct exclude_list *el;
 	const char *qname;
 	char *seen = NULL;
 	struct option options[] = {

@@ -97,10 +98,9 @@ int cmd_clean(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (!ignored)
 		setup_standard_excludes(&dir);
 
-	add_exclude_list(&dir, EXC_CMDL);
+	el = add_exclude_list(&dir, EXC_CMDL);
 	for (i = 0; i < exclude_list.nr; i++)
-		add_exclude(exclude_list.items[i].string, "", 0,
-			    &dir.exclude_list_group[EXC_CMDL].el[0]);
+		add_exclude(exclude_list.items[i].string, "", 0, el);
 
 	pathspec = get_pathspec(prefix, argv);

and by adopting the same approach for ls-files.c: