Re: [PATCH] .gitignore: Keep track of archived files as they are added to a new git repo

[Like Xu]

On 31/1/2023 12:06 am, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 6:04 PM Like Xu <like.xu.linux@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > From: Like Xu <likexu@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > With thousands of commits going into mainline each development cycle,
> > the metadata .git folder size is gradually expanding (1GB+), and for some
> > developers (most likely testers) who don't care about the lengthy git-log,
> > they just use git-archive to distribute a certain version of code (~210MB)
> > and rebuild git repository from anywhere for further code changes, e.g.
> >
> >    $ git init && git add . -A
> >
> > Then unfortunately, the file tracking metadata from the original git-repo
> > using "git add -f" will also be lost, to the point where part of source
> > files wrapped by git-archive may be accidentally cleaned up:
> >
> >    $ git clean -nxdf
> >    Would remove Documentation/devicetree/bindings/.yamllint
> >    Would remove drivers/clk/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove drivers/gpu/drm/tests/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove drivers/hid/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove fs/ext4/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove fs/fat/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove kernel/kcsan/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove lib/kunit/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove mm/kfence/.kunitconfig
> >    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/arm64/tags/
> >    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
> >    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/Makefile
> >    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/config
> >    Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/settings
> >
> > This asymmetry is very troubling to those users since finding out which
> > files to track with "git add -f" clearly requires priori knowledge on
> > various subsystems. The eradication of this little issue requires naturally
> > making git-init aware of all .gitignore restrictions at different file tree
> > hierarchies. Similar issues can be troubleshot with "git check-ignore -v"
> > for any mistakenly cleaned files.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Like Xu <likexu@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
> tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore is already meh.
>
> I hope somebody will submit a better fix.

If we don't append "!.gitignore" to tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore,
the same issue still exists due to the "*" entry in the same file:

# git version 2.31.1
$ git clean -nxdf
Would remove tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore

Is there a better move for this kind of git usage,
or could any maintainer pick this up? Thanks.

> > ---
> >   .gitignore                               | 2 ++
> >   tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore | 2 ++
> >   tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore   | 4 ++++
> >   3 files changed, 8 insertions(+)
> >   create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore
> >
> > diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
> > index 20dce5c3b9e0..fa39e98caee3 100644
> > --- a/.gitignore
> > +++ b/.gitignore
> > @@ -102,6 +102,8 @@ modules.order
> >   !.gitignore
> >   !.mailmap
> >   !.rustfmt.toml
> > +!.yamllint
> > +!.kunitconfig
> >
> >   #
> >   # Generated include files
> > diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore b/tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore
> > new file mode 100644
> > index 000000000000..135d709d2d65
> > --- /dev/null
> > +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/arm64/.gitignore
> > @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
> > +# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
> > +!tags
> > diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
> > index 6d9381d60172..96561c8e06e0 100644
> > --- a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
> > +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/.gitignore
> > @@ -5,3 +5,7 @@
> >   !*.h
> >   !*.S
> >   !*.sh
> > +!.gitignore
> > +!Makefile
> > +!settings
> > +!config
> > \ No newline at end of file
> > --
> > 2.39.1