Subject: Re: Feature request: Config option for --no-ignore-removal/--ignore-removal

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 14:38:49 -0700

Matthew Cline <[email-masked]> writes:

> When I try to a plain old "git add ." when files have been
> deleted/moved, I get the warning
>
>> You ran 'git add' with neither '-A (--all)' or '--ignore-removal'
>
> There should be some way to put something in ~/.gitconfig to tell git to
> always choose one or another.

The lack of configurability is very much deliberate.

Adding such knobs that make basic behaviour of Git different
depending on the per-user setting will make it unnecessarily harder
to run to help your coworker when she is having problems.  "git add
directory" you type in her terminal during the session to help her
could work differently from the way you are used to, if we added
such a knob.  We will not be making that mistake.

As the advice message says, "git add directory" ignores removed
files in the directory in the current version, and in Git 2.0, the
removals are recorded in the index with such a command, so that "add
directory" records the state of the directory as a whole to the
index, which is more consistent.

And that works for everybody the same way; the only way to prepare
for you not to be negatively affected by the switchover is to train
your fingers to say --all or --ignore-removal when the difference in
behaviour in the current and future versions matters, hence this
advise.