fix(core): Match git depth semantics for .git/info/exclude patterns by sxh313 · Pull Request #1871 · yamadashy/repomix

sxh313 · 2026-09-20T23:53:36Z

.git/info/exclude is the standard place to keep a file out of Git without touching the tracked .gitignore — local credentials, scratch fixtures, personal paths. Repomix reads that file, but merges its patterns into the same flat list as ignore.customPatterns and hands it to globby as cwd-relative globs, so a slash-free pattern matches only the top level. .gitignore never has this problem because it is delegated to globby's own gitignore option, which implements Git's matching rules. The result is two ignore sources in one tool disagreeing with each other and with Git, while the docs advertise "Git-Aware: Respects your .gitignore and .git/info/exclude files".

$ cat .git/info/exclude
secret.txt

$ git check-ignore -v secret.txt sub/secret.txt     # Git: both ignored
$ repomix . -o -  | grep '<file path='              # before
<file path="sub/secret.txt">                        # leaked
<file path="keep.txt">

The translation now applied when reading the exclude file mirrors the two rules from gitignore(5): a pattern with no slash is a name to match at any depth (secret.txt → **/secret.txt), and a leading slash anchors it to the exclude file's directory, which is already globby's base (/secret.txt → secret.txt). **/secret.txt still matches the top-level file, so the case that already worked keeps working — checked against globby directly, not just inferred.

An exclude file that contains a ! rule keeps today's behaviour unchanged. globby's ignore option is exclusion-only, so such a negation is already inert (#1873), and lifting the positives around it would hide a nested file that Git packs — trading a leak for a missing file, which is the worse failure for a packing tool. Ordered last-match-wins re-inclusion needs a change that can express it, not this one, so the lift is skipped when the rule set contains a negation. Measured both ways.

This is deliberately scoped to the exclude file. .repomixignore, .ignore and ignore.customPatterns go through the same list but are documented as globs, with no Git behaviour to match, so changing them would break configurations that work today. #375 asked for exclude support and got it; this makes the support mean what Git means.

Measured after the change: packing the fixture gives keep.txt only, and a wider fixture covering /anchored.txt, nested/only.txt and cache/ now produces exactly the set git check-ignore reports as not ignored. A negation fixture (*.log + !important.log) produces the same file list as main. Existing .git/info/exclude test expectations are updated to the translated patterns, and new getIgnorePatterns cases pin the anchored form and the rule set containing a negation.

Checklist

Run npm run test
Run npm run lint

A pattern in .git/info/exclude is merged into repomix's flat ignore list and handed to globby as a cwd-relative glob, so `secret.txt` only matches at the top level while the same pattern in .gitignore matches at any depth through globby's gitignore support. Files Git considers ignored got packed from one ignore source and not the other. Translate exclude patterns the way Git reads them: slash-free names gain a `**/` prefix, leading-slash patterns drop the anchor they already satisfy. Fixes: yamadashy#1870 Constraint: ignore.customPatterns and .repomixignore/.ignore keep their current semantics; only .git/info/exclude has a Git contract to match. Validation: npm run test (1824 passed, 20 skipped); biome + oxlint clean on both files; npm run build; with the source change reverted the 5 new and corrected tests fail; against the issue's fixture a packed repo now matches `git check-ignore` exactly, including `/anchored.txt`, `nested/only.txt` and `cache/`.

coderabbitai · 2026-09-20T23:53:59Z

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Walkthrough

The change adds gitExcludePatternToGlob and applies it to .git/info/exclude patterns. Bare patterns now match files at any directory depth. Tests cover bare, slash-containing, anchored, and negated patterns.

Changes

Git exclude matching

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Pattern conversion contract `src/core/file/fileSearch.ts`, `tests/core/file/fileSearch.test.ts`	The exported helper preserves negated and slash-containing patterns, removes a leading slash, and prefixes bare patterns with `**/`. Unit tests cover these rules.
Exclude file integration `src/core/file/fileSearch.ts`, `tests/core/file/fileSearch.test.ts`	When `.git/info/exclude` contains a negation, entries remain unchanged. Otherwise, entries pass through the helper before entering the ignore set. Integration tests verify nested, anchored, and negated pattern behavior.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to f5831

Projects using directory-only entries in .git/info/exclude can omit regular files with the same name. The case is narrow but should be corrected before relying on Git-compatible exclude behavior.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: aligning `.git/info/exclude` patterns with Git depth semantics.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is complete and relevant. It explains the problem, implementation scope, behavior for anchored and negated patterns, testing, and checklist completion.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	For `#1870`, `gitExcludePatternToGlob` adds `**/` to slash-free `.git/info/exclude` patterns. This gives nested files the required depth matching. Slash-containing patterns remain repository-relative, a…
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The production change is limited to `.git/info/exclude` pattern conversion and its integration. The added tests verify the requested matching behavior and protect existing negation and other ignore-so…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 2…

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Inline comments:
In `@src/core/file/fileSearch.ts`:
- Around line 373-375: The pattern handling in the file-search ignore flow must
apply .git/info/exclude negations using Git’s ordered re-inclusion semantics
rather than passing them as generic globby exclusions. Update the logic around
the pattern branch and its surrounding matching implementation so ! patterns
restore matching files, including nested paths such as nested/important.log
after **/*.log, using a Gitignore-compatible matcher or post-discovery rule
application; add a regression test for this nested case.

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sxh313 · 2026-09-21T00:01:08Z

Correction: the conclusion below is wrong, and so is the fixture — it puts !secret.txt immediately after secret.txt at the same depth, where lifting nothing changes. CodeRabbit's later comment uses a nested re-inclusion, which the previous revision did regress. Measured, fixed in f5831fe, and written up in this reply.

Re: the "Merge Risk: moderate" note about negated exclude rules — measured, and the diff doesn't change that configuration's output.

Fixture: .git/info/exclude containing a positive pattern immediately cancelled by a negation, the shape the warning describes.

rm -rf /tmp/neg && mkdir -p /tmp/neg/sub && cd /tmp/neg && git init -q
printf 'secret.txt\n!secret.txt\n' > .git/info/exclude
printf 'x\n' > secret.txt && printf 'x\n' > sub/secret.txt && printf 'x\n' > sub/keep.txt
git add -A
git -c user.name=dev -c user.email=dev@example.com commit -qm init

Git reports nothing ignored here (git check-ignore secret.txt sub/secret.txt exits 1), so the correct output is all three files.

build	packed
`main` at `9f01703`	`sub/keep.txt`, `sub/secret.txt`
this PR	`sub/keep.txt`, `sub/secret.txt`

Identical. The reason is that globby's ignore list already consumes the !secret.txt entry itself, so the negation was never inert and my helper leaves it untouched (!**/secret.txt is never produced). The positive secret.txt still wins at the root, which is why the root file is missing in both rows — that discrepancy against Git is real but predates this PR and is unchanged by it, and fixing it means implementing gitignore's last-match-wins ordering rather than translating patterns.

The case this PR does change is the one in #1870, where no negation is involved: secret.txt alone. There main packs sub/secret.txt and this branch doesn't, matching Git.

globby's `ignore` list has no re-inclusion, so a `!important.log` entry in .git/info/exclude is inert today: it hides nothing and restores nothing. Lifting the positives to any depth next to such a rule would additionally hide `nested/important.log`, which Git packs, replacing a known divergence with a new one that loses files instead of leaking them. Skip the lift for a rule set that contains a negation so those repositories keep exactly the behaviour they have now, and leave ordered negation support to a change that can express it.

sxh313 · 2026-09-21T04:03:59Z

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coderabbitai · 2026-09-21T04:04:11Z

@sxh313: I will re-review the current pull request changes.

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Inline comments:
In `@src/core/file/fileSearch.ts`:
- Line 524: Update the translated-pattern handling in the ignore-pattern
construction around gitExcludePatternToGlob so directory-only Git rules retain
directory semantics after normalization, using a glob form such as
**/temp-files/** rather than a bare path. Add coverage for a nested regular file
named temp-files to ensure it is not ignored while contents under the matching
directory remain ignored.

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sxh313 · 2026-09-21T04:37:09Z

@coderabbitai resolve

coderabbitai · 2026-09-21T04:37:18Z

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sxh313 requested a review from yamadashy as a code owner September 20, 2026 23:53

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Comment thread src/core/file/fileSearch.ts

sxh313 mentioned this pull request Sep 21, 2026

[BUG] Negation rules in .git/info/exclude are inert, unlike the same rules in .gitignore #1873

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This was referenced Sep 21, 2026

fix(core): apply .git/info/exclude patterns at every depth #1881

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[BUG] .git/info/exclude patterns only apply to the top level of the packed directory #1870

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Merge branch 'main' into fix/git-info-exclude-depth-semantics

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fix(core): Match git depth semantics for .git/info/exclude patterns#1871
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