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--- git_clean [2018/05/21 11:14] – rpjday
+++ git_clean [2019/02/28 15:25] (current) – [Overriding standard ignore rules] rpjday
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ===== Overview =====
-General usage for cleaning your working directory of untracked files:
+General usage for "cleaning" your working directory:
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 </code>
-Config setting:
+The single config setting for this command:
   * ''clean.requireForce''
-Prerequisites: ''gitignore''
+Prerequisites: You should understand ''gitignore'' files.
 ===== DESCRIPTION =====
 <code>
-Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are not under version control,
+Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are not
-starting from the current directory.
+under version control, starting from the current directory.
-Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the -x option is specified, ignored
+Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the -x
-files are also removed. This can, for example, be useful to remove all build products.
+option is specified, ignored files are also removed. This can, for
+example, be useful to remove all build products.
-If any optional <path>... arguments are given, only those paths are affected.
+If any optional <path>... arguments are given, only those paths are
+affected.
+</code>
+Note how both ignored files and new, //staged// files are not cleaned by default. Currently, there is some dissension regarding what is meant by files "known to Git."
+===== Basic options =====
+General execution options:
+<code>
+-i, --interactive
+    Show what would be done and clean files interactively.
+-n, --dry-run
+    Don’t actually remove anything, just show what would be done.
+-q, --quiet
+    Be quiet, only report errors, but not the files that are
+    successfully removed.
+</code>
+Forcing the issue:
+<code>
+-f, --force
+    If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set
+    to false, git clean will refuse to delete files or directories
+    unless given -f, -n or -i. Git will refuse to delete
+    directories with .git sub directory or file unless a second -f
+    is given.
+</code>
+Removing directories as well:
+<code>
+-d
+    Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files. If
+    an untracked directory is managed by a different Git
+    repository, it is not removed by default. Use -f option twice
+    if you really want to remove such a directory.
+</code>
+===== Overriding standard ignore rules =====
+The explanation below oddly does not mention the use of the configuration setting ''core.excludesFile''.
+<code>
+-e <pattern>, --exclude=<pattern>
+    In addition to those found in .gitignore (per directory) and
+    $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, also consider these patterns to be in
+    the set of the ignore rules in effect.
+-x
+    Don’t use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore
+    (per directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use
+    the ignore rules given with -e options. This allows removing
+    all untracked files, including build products. This can be
+    used (possibly in conjunction with git reset) to create a
+    pristine working directory to test a clean build.
+-X
+    Remove only files ignored by Git. This may be useful to
+    rebuild everything from scratch, but keep manually created
+    files.
+</code>
+===== Getting a "pristine" working tree =====
+Create a shell alias:
+<code>
+alias gpristine='git reset --hard && git clean -dfx'
 </code>