Re: Easy way to verify gitignore files?

Abhijit Menon-Sen <ams@toroid.org> writes:
> At 2010-09-22 20:54:19 -0400, tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us wrote:
>> However, it seems that git isn't so willing to tell you about gitignore
>> patterns that cover too much, i.e. match files that are already in the
>> repository.

> If .gitignore specifies a pattern that matches something that's already
> in the repository, that specification is itself ignored, and the file is
> treated like any other file.

I can demonstrate that this is not so.  Try a "git add" on such a file.
It fails --- at least it does with the version of git currently in
Fedora 13.  You get some nasty warning about how there's a conflicting
.gitignore pattern and you have to use -f if you want to add.
        regards, tom lane