Added edit/remove functionality to git-ignore by kdergachev · Pull Request #1258 · tj/git-extras

kdergachev · 2026-06-02T22:00:31Z

PR for issue #1257

These commits introduce flags -r/--remove and -e/--edit to git-ignore to allow removing patterns the same way they can be added and for opening ignore files in a text editor. Some other minor changes like '--' flag-argument separator introduced. New version is mostly backwards-compatible with old one.

Some quirks/things to consider:

Flags for actions/locations override each other and the last is the actual one.
Temporary file creation for remove (found that filling tmp file with double loop over lines and patterns is the best way to remove a list of patterns while not interpreting patterns as regex or any other type of special symbols, maybe there is a better way)
Should edit action create a file if one does not exist?
Unnecessary arguments are not checked for and just omitted

Submitting this as a draft, and if everything's OK/after changes are made will modify documentation accordingly (same for output with -h/--help flags).

spacewander

Let's update the docs, and completion script in https://github.com/tj/git-extras/tree/main/etc (if possible)

spacewander · 2026-06-03T06:09:35Z

+}
+
+_usage() {
+  # TODO


Let's either fulfill it or drop it

spacewander · 2026-06-03T06:10:32Z

+  level="none"
+  action="none"
+  declare -a args
+  while [ "$1" != "" ]; do


It breaks documented empty-string patterns. while [ "$1" != "" ] stops parsing as soon as a pattern is "", so existing examples like git ignore --local "" "# Temporary files" no longer add anything after the empty argument. Use while [ $# -gt 0 ] instead.

spacewander · 2026-06-03T06:11:26Z

+  local file="${2/#~/$HOME}"
+  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
+    echo "Removing patterns from $1 gitignore ($2)..."
+    while read -r line; do


It can corrupt preserved lines during remove. read without IFS= trims leading/trailing whitespace, echo "$line" mishandles values like -n, and the loop skips a final line without a trailing newline. Use while IFS= read -r line || [ -n "$line" ]; do and printf '%s\n' "$line".

While thinking about these issues found that perl has \E \Q escapes. These could work too (something like perl -pe "s/\Q${pattern1}\E\n?//; s/\Q${pattern2}\E\n?//; ..."). Which of the approaches do you think is better?

I wonder if we have to add perl in https://github.com/tj/git-extras/blob/main/Installation.md#dependencies. Could it be solved with awk or sed?

I think I found a way to do that in awk and also keep echos saying what was dropped. Added it in 3e5076b.

spacewander · 2026-06-03T06:11:55Z

+edit_file() {
+  local file="${2/#~/$HOME}"
+  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
+    echo "Editing $1 gitignore ($2)..." && $(git var GIT_EDITOR) "$file"


$(git var GIT_EDITOR) "$file" loses shell quoting for editor values like vim -c 'set ft=gitignore', and echo "Done." still runs even if the editor exits non-zero.

Changed the line to use eval - it seems to fix this issue.

spacewander · 2026-06-03T06:13:54Z

+    tmpfile="$(mktemp -q "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}"/git-extras-ignore.XXXXXX 2>/dev/null)"
+  else
+    cd_to_git_root --warn &>/dev/null
+    tmpfile="$(mktemp -q "$GIT_DIR"/git-extras-ignore.XXXXXX 2>/dev/null)"


Why don't we always put the temp file in $TMPDIR?

Wanted it to work the same way git does and it writes its tmp files in .git. Changed to always use global tmp directory.

spacewander · 2026-06-03T06:15:48Z

+        echo "Removed $line pattern."
+      fi
+    done < "$file"
+    mv "$tmpfile" "$file" # tmp file created in get_tmp_file 'deleted'


If .gitignore or the global ignore file is a symlink, mv "$tmpfile" "$file" replaces the symlink instead of updating its target; it can also lose file metadata. Can we update it in place?

…ndling, tmp file location, symlinked gitignore handling).

… cosmetic changes.

spacewander

LGTM except one thing. Let's update usage and docs.

kdergachev · 2026-06-18T20:07:22Z

Done

spacewander · 2026-06-22T06:46:10Z

+edit_file() {
+  local file="${2/#~/$HOME}"
+  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
+    echo "Editing $1 gitignore: ($2)" && eval "$(git var GIT_EDITOR) $file"


Will spaces or shell metacharacters in the $file break the eval since we don't quote them?

Yes, I guess so. The safest way to prevent that seems to be with $(printf '%q' "$file") (${file@Q} should work too, but for old versions of bash is unavailable). Should we do the same to the GIT_EDITOR part or is it assumed to be safe?

Let's do it.

Fixed it. Though left GIT_EDITOR part the same since I realized that it will then treat the whole string in that variable as the command, but GIT_EDITOR (I suppose) can contain flags or be even more complex than "<editor> <flags>..." (for example try eval " 'vim -e' ").

spacewander

LGTM. But could you exclude others' commits and fix the typo?

… all of the GIT_EDITOR will be treated as command (flags included).

kdergachev · 2026-07-09T20:23:37Z

Fixed.
Had to resort to resetting with a force-push and reapplying commits (made a mistake of pulling to local, adding commits, pushing to fork and only then syncing the fork).

spacewander · 2026-07-14T11:42:22Z

@kdergachev
Merged. Thank you!

kdergachev added 3 commits June 2, 2026 23:45

Added edit/remove functionality to git-ignore.

c1cf87f

Minor change to array-string assignment.

0546411

Fixes array handling for remove.

69124b9

spacewander reviewed Jun 3, 2026

View reviewed changes

kdergachev added 2 commits June 3, 2026 23:18

Suggested fixes (iteration over arguments, pattern removal, editor ha…

044f8e6

…ndling, tmp file location, symlinked gitignore handling).

Changed pure bash editing of files to an awk script. Some other minor…

3e5076b

… cosmetic changes.

spacewander reviewed Jun 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread bin/git-ignore

kdergachev and others added 5 commits June 17, 2026 23:13

Merge branch 'tj:main' into main

91bf8db

Updated docs.

99815fa

Modified autocomplete to work with new git-ignore

33acecb

Added help message to git-ignore.

dda01a3

Added help flags to git-ignore's man.

eb28e6e

spacewander reviewed Jun 22, 2026

View reviewed changes

spacewander reviewed Jul 9, 2026

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kdergachev force-pushed the main branch from bbef6f9 to eb28e6e Compare July 9, 2026 20:08

kdergachev and others added 3 commits July 9, 2026 23:08

Merge branch 'tj:main' into main

9e21478

Made $file in eval safe. Should not do the same for editor since then…

a9d9d3b

… all of the GIT_EDITOR will be treated as command (flags included).

Typo fixes.

33b43dc

spacewander approved these changes Jul 13, 2026

View reviewed changes

spacewander merged commit b450b36 into tj:main Jul 14, 2026
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kdergachev commented Jun 18, 2026

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kdergachev Jul 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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kdergachev commented Jul 9, 2026

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