[PATCH] .gitignore: Keep track of archived files as they are added to a new git repo

[Like Xu]

On 31/1/2023 12:06 am, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 6:04 PM Like Xu <like.xu.linux at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Like Xu <likexu at tencent.com>
>>
>> With thousands of commits going into mainline each development cycle,
>> the metadata .git folder size is gradually expanding (1GB+), and for some
>> developers (most likely testers) who don't care about the lengthy git-log,
>> they just use git-archive to distribute a certain version of code (~210MB)
>> and rebuild git repository from anywhere for further code changes, e.g.
>>
>>    $ git init && git add . -A
>>
>> Then unfortunately, the file tracking metadata from the original git-repo
>> using "git add -f" will also be lost, to the point where part of source
>> files wrapped by git-archive may be accidentally cleaned up:
>>
>>    $ git clean -nxdf
>>    Would remove Documentation/devicetree/bindings/.yamllint
>>    Would remove drivers/clk/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove drivers/gpu/drm/tests/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove drivers/hid/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove fs/ext4/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove fs/fat/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove kernel/kcsan/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove lib/kunit/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove mm/kfence/.kunitconfig
>>    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/arm64/tags/
>>    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
>>    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/Makefile
>>    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/config
>>    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/settings
>>
>> This asymmetry is very troubling to those users since finding out which
>> files to track with "git add -f" clearly requires priori knowledge on
>> various subsystems. The eradication of this little issue requires naturally
>> making git-init aware of all .gitignore restrictions at different file tree
>> hierarchies. Similar issues can be troubleshot with "git check-ignore -v"
>> for any mistakenly cleaned files.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Like Xu <likexu at tencent.com>
> 
> 
> 
> tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore is already meh.
> 
> I hope somebody will submit a better fix.
> 
> 

If we don't append "!.gitignore" to tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore,
the same issue still exists due to the "*" entry in the same file:

# git version 2.31.1
$ git clean -nxdf
Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore

Is there a better move for this kind of git usage,
or could any maintainer pick this up? Thanks.

> 
> 
>> ---
>>   .gitignore                               | 2 ++
>>   tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore | 2 ++
>>   tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore   | 4 ++++
>>   3 files changed, 8 insertions(+)
>>   create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore
>>
>> diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
>> index 20dce5c3b9e0..fa39e98caee3 100644
>> --- a/.gitignore
>> +++ b/.gitignore
>> @@ -102,6 +102,8 @@ modules.order
>>   !.gitignore
>>   !.mailmap
>>   !.rustfmt.toml
>> +!.yamllint
>> +!.kunitconfig
>>
>>   #
>>   # Generated include files
>> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore b/tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore
>> new file mode 100644
>> index 000000000000..135d709d2d65
>> --- /dev/null
>> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore
>> @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
>> +# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
>> +!tags
>> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
>> index 6d9381d60172..96561c8e06e0 100644
>> --- a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
>> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
>> @@ -5,3 +5,7 @@
>>   !*.h
>>   !*.S
>>   !*.sh
>> +!.gitignore
>> +!Makefile
>> +!settings
>> +!config
>> \ No newline at end of file
>> --
>> 2.39.1
>>
> 
>