Subject: Re: No error when overwriting ignored files

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2021 00:17:50 +0200

On Wed, Apr 07 2021, Jeff King wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 07, 2021 at 03:56:38PM -0400, Horst von Brand wrote:
>
>> When pulling from a repository that tracks a file listed in
>> `.gitignore` that would overwrite a local file, this is not reported.
>> 
>> For example, in the attached repositories, when doing `git pull tst1`
>> in `tst2`, it is (correctly) reported that `ignored.not` would be
>> overwritten, while `ignored.txt` is not reported.
>
> This is behaving as intended. Ignored files are not considered
> "precious". You can find more discussion by searching for that term in
> the list archive.
>
> There is no concept of "ignored but precious" in Git. However, here's an
> old patch series that tries to move in that direction (using an
> attribute):
>
>   https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email-masked]/
>
> AFAIK nobody is actively working on it right now.

Having re-read that thread now I still think by far the most useful way
forward with this for anyone who's interested is to investigate/add
missing tests for our current behavior, why/when it got introduced,
whether anyone wanted it or if it was emergent etc. See [1] for a
summary.

That's quite a bit of work, but is work that someone with little/no
previous familiarity with git's development should be able to do with
enough time & motivation....

1. https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email-masked]/