Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns
that begin with a literal "`!`", 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
- a match with a directory. In other words, `foo/` will match a
- directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a
- regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent
- with the way how pathspec works in general in Git).
-
- - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', Git treats it as
- a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
- pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
- (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
- `.gitignore` file).
-
- - Otherwise, Git treats the pattern as a shell glob: "`*`" matches
- anything except "`/`", "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`"
- and "`[]`" matches one character in a selected range. See
- fnmatch(3) and the FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed
- description.
-
- - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
- For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
- "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
+ - The slash '/' is used as the directory separator. Separators may
+ occur at the beginning, middle or end of the `.gitignore` search pattern.
+
+ - If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the
+ pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the
+ particular `.gitignore` file itself. Otherwise the pattern may also
+ match at any level below the `.gitignore` level.
+
+ - If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern
+ will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both
+ files and directories.
+
+ - For example, a pattern `doc/frotz/` matches `doc/frotz` directory,
+ but not `a/doc/frotz` directory; however `frotz/` matches `frotz`
+ and `a/frotz` that is a directory (all paths are relative from
+ the `.gitignore` file).
+
+ - An asterisk "`*`" matches anything except a slash.
+ The character "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`".
+ The range notation, e.g. `[a-zA-Z]`, can be used to match
+ one of the characters in a range. See fnmatch(3) and the
+ FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed description.
Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against
full pathname may have special meaning:
EXAMPLES
--------
+ - The pattern `hello.*` matches any file or folder
+ whose name begins with `hello`. If one wants to restrict
+ this only to the directory and not in its subdirectories,
+ one can prepend the pattern with a slash, i.e. `/hello.*`;
+ the pattern now matches `hello.txt`, `hello.c` but not
+ `a/hello.java`.
+
+ - The pattern `foo/` will match a directory `foo` and
+ paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file
+ or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent with the
+ way how pathspec works in general in Git)
+
+ - The pattern `doc/frotz` and `/doc/frotz` have the same effect
+ in any `.gitignore` file. In other words, a leading slash
+ is not relevant if there is already a middle slash in
+ the pattern.
+
+ - The pattern "foo/*", matches "foo/test.json"
+ (a regular file), "foo/bar" (a directory), but it does not match
+ "foo/bar/hello.c" (a regular file), as the asterisk in the
+ pattern does not match "bar/hello.c" which has a slash in it.
+
--------------------------------------------------------------
$ git status
[...]