Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] gitignore: ignore top level build/ directory

[Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>]

On Tue, 22 May 2018 23:45:31 +0200
Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net> wrote:

> 19/12/2016 18:14, Bruce Richardson:
> > On Mon, Dec 19, 2016 at 04:50:57PM +0000, Mcnamara, John wrote:  
> > > From: dev [mailto:dev-bounces@dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Richardson  
> > > > On Mon, Dec 19, 2016 at 03:05:20PM +0100, Thomas Monjalon wrote:  
> > > > > 2016-12-13 12:02, Ferruh Yigit:  
> > > > > > On 12/13/2016 11:48 AM, Baruch Siach wrote:  
> > > > > > > RTE_OUTPUT defaults to build/.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Signed-off-by: Baruch Siach <baruch@tkos.co.il>  
> > > > > >
> > > > > > There is a similar patch:
> > > > > > http://dpdk.org/dev/patchwork/patch/11637/
> > > > > >
> > > > > > If you want you can review/comment that one too.  
> > > > >
> > > > > Yes, sorry I've never commented above patch.
> > > > >
> > > > > I do not like filling .gitignore because I prefer seeing what is built
> > > > > or copied or whatever with "git status".
> > > > > What is really the benefit of .gitignore?  
> > > > 
> > > > I take the opposite view. I only like to see files that I actually care
> > > > about in the git status. Any build artifacts should be ignored by git as
> > > > they are not files that it ever should track. That way doing a build does
> > > > not change the status of the repo as git sees it.  
> > > 
> > > As a workaround I have the following in my .gitconfig:
> > > 
> > >     [core]
> > >     excludesfile = ~/.gitignore
> > > 
> > > Then I put the ignore rules in ~/.gitignore.
> > > 
> > > John
> > >   
> > Yes, I have something similar done, so this is not a problem for me
> > personally. I just find it strange that we don't make more use of
> > gitignore in DPDK. The file's name itself seems to imply that it should
> > be used to list out files that git should not track, and build output is
> > definitely one of those.  
> 
> I don't understand why we should hide the default build directory and not
> the other ones with different names.
> It would be perceived as inconsistent and confusing.

Almost all users will use the standard build/ directory.
The idea of gitignore is to allow git status to work correctly.
Looking at systemd, which also uses meson, the .gitignore file is:

*.a
*.cache
*.gch
*.log
*.o
*.plist
*.py[co]
*.stamp
*.swp
*.trs
*~
.config.args
.deps/
/*.gcda
/*.gcno
/*.tar.bz2
/*.tar.gz
/*.tar.xz
/GPATH
/GRTAGS
/GSYMS
/GTAGS
/TAGS
/ID
/build*
/coverage/
/image.raw
/image.raw.cache-pre-dev
/image.raw.cache-pre-inst
/install-tree
/mkosi.builddir/
/mkosi.output/
/tags
__pycache__/