Subject: [PATCH v2] gitignore.txt: suggestions how to get literal # or ! at the beginning

From: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2012 20:51:24 +0700

We support backslash escape, but we hide the details behind the phrase
"a shell glob suitable for consumption by fnmatch(3)". So it may not
be obvious how one can get literal # or ! at the beginning of pattern.
Add a few lines on how to work around the magic characters.

Signed-off-by: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy <[email-masked]>
---
 On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Jeff King <[email-masked]> wrote:
 > It works fine for me with asciidoc 8.6.7. <sigh>

 8.6.5 works. I don't care deeply as I read .txt anyway. Here it goes
 again with examples.

 Documentation/gitignore.txt | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index 96639e0..0bcf079 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -73,12 +73,16 @@ PATTERN FORMAT
  - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
    for readability.
 
- - A line starting with # serves as a comment.
+ - A line starting with "`#`" serves as a comment.
+   Use "`\#`" instead for patterns that begin with "`#`",
+   for example, "`\#backup#.txt`".
 
- - An optional prefix '!' which negates the pattern; any
+ - An optional prefix "`!`" which negates the pattern; any
    matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
    included again.  If a negated pattern matches, this will
    override lower precedence patterns sources.
+   Use "`\!`" instead for patterns that begin with "`!`",
+   for example, "`\!important!.txt`".
 
  - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
    purpose of the following description, but it would only find
-- 
1.7.12.1.406.g6ab07c4