A pathspec that begins with a colon `:` has special meaning. In the
short form, the leading colon `:` is followed by zero or more "magic
signature" letters (which optionally is terminated by another colon `:`),
-and the remainder is the pattern to match against the path. The optional
-colon that terminates the "magic signature" can be omitted if the pattern
-begins with a character that cannot be a "magic signature" and is not a
-colon.
+and the remainder is the pattern to match against the path.
+The "magic signature" consists of ASCII symbols that are neither
+alphanumeric, glob, regex special charaters nor colon.
+The optional colon that terminates the "magic signature" can be
+omitted if the pattern begins with a character that does not belong to
+"magic signature" symbol set and is not a colon.
+
In the long form, the leading colon `:` is followed by a open
parenthesis `(`, a comma-separated list of zero or more "magic words",
and a close parentheses `)`, and the remainder is the pattern to match
against the path.
+
-The "magic signature" consists of an ASCII symbol that is not
-alphanumeric. Currently only the slash `/` is recognized as a
-"magic signature": it makes the pattern match from the root of
-the working tree, even when you are running the command from
-inside a subdirectory.
-+
A pathspec with only a colon means "there is no pathspec". This form
should not be combined with other pathspec.
++
+--
+top;;
+ The magic word `top` (magic signature: `/`) makes the pattern
+ match from the root of the working tree, even when you are
+ running the command from inside a subdirectory.
+
+literal;;
+ Wildcards in the pattern such as `*` or `?` are treated
+ as literal characters.
+
+icase;;
+ Case insensitive match.
+
+glob;;
+ Git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable for
+ consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
+ wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
+ For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
+ "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
+ or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
++
+Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against
+full pathname may have special meaning:
+
+ - A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all
+ directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory
+ "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "`**/foo/bar`"
+ matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly
+ under directory "`foo`".
+
+ - A trailing "`/**`" matches everything inside. For example,
+ "`abc/**`" matches all files inside directory "abc", relative
+ to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth.
+
+ - A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
+ matches zero or more directories. For example, "`a/**/b`"
+ matches "`a/b`", "`a/x/b`", "`a/x/y/b`" and so on.
+
+ - Other consecutive asterisks are considered invalid.
++
+Glob magic is incompatible with literal magic.
+
+exclude;;
+ After a path matches any non-exclude pathspec, it will be run
+ through all exclude pathspec (magic signature: `!`). If it
+ matches, the path is ignored.
+--
[[def_parent]]parent::
A <<def_commit_object,commit object>> contains a (possibly empty) list
to the result.
[[def_ref]]ref::
- A 40-byte hex representation of a <<def_SHA1,SHA-1>> or a name that
- denotes a particular <<def_object,object>>. They may be stored in
- a file under `$GIT_DIR/refs/` directory, or
- in the `$GIT_DIR/packed-refs` file.
+ A name that begins with `refs/` (e.g. `refs/heads/master`)
+ that points to an <<def_object_name,object name>> or another
+ ref (the latter is called a <<def_symref,symbolic ref>>).
+ For convenience, a ref can sometimes be abbreviated when used
+ as an argument to a Git command; see linkgit:gitrevisions[7]
+ for details.
+ Refs are stored in the <<def_repository,repository>>.
++
+The ref namespace is hierarchical.
+Different subhierarchies are used for different purposes (e.g. the
+`refs/heads/` hierarchy is used to represent local branches).
++
+There are a few special-purpose refs that do not begin with `refs/`.
+The most notable example is `HEAD`.
[[def_reflog]]reflog::
A reflog shows the local "history" of a ref. In other words,