* Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
variable 'core.excludesfile'.
+Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
+be used. Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
+other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want
+to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file. Patterns which are
+specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared
+with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside
+the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into
+the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file. Patterns which a user wants git to
+ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by
+the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
+`core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`.
+
The underlying git plumbing tools, such as
-gitlink:git-ls-files[1] and gitlink:git-read-tree[1], read
+linkgit:git-ls-files[1] and linkgit:git-read-tree[1], read
`gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
files specified by command-line options. Higher-level git
-tools, such as gitlink:git-status[1] and gitlink:git-add[1],
+tools, such as linkgit:git-status[1] and linkgit:git-add[1],
use patterns from the sources specified above.
Patterns have the following format:
GIT
---
-Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
+Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite