When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks
`gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
-order of precedence:
+order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
+precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
- * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
- variable 'core.excludesfile'.
-
- * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
+ * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
+ them.
* Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
- as the path, or in any parent directory, ordered from the
- deepest such file to a file in the root of the repository.
+ as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the
+ higher level files (up to the root) being overridden by those in
+ lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
These patterns match relative to the location of the
`.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such
`.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
files generated as part of the project build.
+ * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
+
+ * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
+ variable 'core.excludesfile'.
+
The underlying git plumbing tools, such as
gitlink:git-ls-files[1] and gitlink:git-read-tree[1], read
`gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
- An optional prefix '!' which negates the pattern; any
matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
- included again.
+ included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will
+ override lower precedence patterns sources.
- If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the