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A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
-git should ignore. Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a
-pattern.
-
+git should ignore.
+Note that all the `gitignore` files really concern only files
+that are not already tracked by git;
+in order to ignore uncommitted changes in already tracked files,
+please refer to the 'git update-index --assume-unchanged'
+documentation.
+
+Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks
`gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
* Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
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.
+ higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) 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
`core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`.
The underlying git plumbing tools, such as
-`git-ls-files` and `git-read-tree`, read
+'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read
`gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
files specified by command-line options. Higher-level git
-tools, such as `git-status` and `git-add`,
+tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
use patterns from the sources specified above.
Patterns have the following format: