gitignore.5: Clarify matching rules

[git.git] / Documentation / gitignore.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index 7df3cef46f3cc2a0cb0e0d7197b431b01b3af4fd..e10fa88b8cf98b796fc9354e7671dc7bec25840d 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -56,10 +56,10 @@ 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
-'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:
@@ -83,16 +83,20 @@ Patterns have the following format:
 
  - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
    a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
-   pathname without leading directories.
+   pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
+   (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
+   `.gitignore` file).
 
  - Otherwise, 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/\*.html" matches
-   "Documentation/git.html" but not
-   "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html".  A leading slash matches the
-   beginning of the pathname; for example, "/*.c" matches
-   "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
+   "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
+   or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
+
+ - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
+   For example, "/*.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
+   "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
 
 An example: