4 ms·

Wow this is neat. I never really bothered to deep-dive into my git configuration, but some of these are really cool. The diff changes are awesome, and I always

Wow this is neat. I never really bothered to deep-dive into my git configuration, but some of these are really cool. The diff changes are awesome, and I always wondered why there isn't a global .gitignore file in the first place, seeing that every .gitignore file basically has (mostly) the same content

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
schacon 2y ago
I mentioned it in the post as well, but Git will look in `.config/git/ignore` if you prefer to just use that rather than setting a new path. There's also a possible downside here in having things hidden for you but not for others since it's not in your `.gitignore` project file. I'm honestly kind of on the fence about this one, I don't have much in that file for those reasons.
- fragmede 2y ago
  I have .DS_store in mine, as I'm on a Mac and don't need to spread that to others.
  - schacon 2y ago
    Good point.
  - zelphirkalt 2y ago
    Or ".vscode" folder. No need to spread that to everyone, who might not even be using VSCode or VSCodium. Like we also don't see all of the following being added everywhere: ".settings" (eclipse), ".idea" (IntelliJ Idea), ".nbproject" (I believe Netbeans) and others everywhere in the repos. Yet we see it for VSCode. I think Github encourages this annoying behavior, because it is Microsoft's own tool, so it gets treated differently. People see this and copy this bad habit without reflecting on it. What so many others do cannot possibly be wrong... I find it annoying to have those folders on my machine, that I don't need, but yet are checked into the git tree, so I basically cannot delete them, without affecting another person, when they pull my changes. Why you check that in bro??? Ugh. I don't check in my Emacs backup files and shit either. I would like to aee their long faces, when faced with all of the files and folders other tools leave behind. People just aren't capable to configure their editors properly I guess and therefore rely on local config for things that could be global config or in a ".editorconfig", like for example trimming trailing whitespace.
    - tomnipotent 2y ago
      It's very common for shared project-specific setting files to be stored in ".vscode" that are used by all developers on the project, including launch/task configurations. VSCode settings are hierarchical and composable (non-scalar keys are merged).
      - mvanbaak 2y ago
        if one would use ".editorconfig" it works with multiple editors/IDEs. See editorconfig.org for more info :)
      - zelphirkalt 2y ago
        I am aware of that. Yet I don't see other cohorts doing that with their editor/IDE of choice. It seems to be mostly the "I don't want to configure my tools" subset, who does that. What if I switch my tool of choice 2-3 times? Do I get to commit all my project management IDE/editor specific files too? How much stuff do we want to accumulate in the git repo?
        tomnipotent 2y ago
        > Do I get to commit all my project management IDE/editor specific files too Yes, if those files apply to all team members using the same tool absolutely check them in. What's the problem? It reads to me like maybe you don't know what these files are actually used for and why a team benefits from sharing them.
        zelphirkalt 2y ago
        The whole point is, that not everyone is in the bubble of VS Code users, and not everyone wants to have that stuff on their machine, and not everyone is benefiting from it either. Imagine cloning some repo and having extra stuff in there from 3 different IDEs and 3 different editors. This stuff clutters up the repo.
marcyb5st 2y ago
I prefer difftastic (https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic) as diff tool. I think it's the most readable and understandable diff.
- schacon 2y ago
  At the end of the article, I also subtly plugged: * https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy * https://github.com/dandavison/delta https://github.com/dandavison/delta Also both great TUI diff tools
whirlwin 2y ago
There's also an ongoing effort among creators to not pollute the home directory with too many hidden files. Instead, as the blog post mentions, there exist .config/git/ignore which I think is a more scalable approach in the long run. Especially looking at the number of tools and utilities requiring one or several config files.
n_plus_1_acc 2y ago
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore
wh33zle 2y ago
One of the coolest things I've learned about recently is `.git/info/exclude`. It allows you to ignore files in the local repo without modifying the repo's .gitignore Very useful if you want to add your own .envrc or shell.nix to a repo.
- chuckadams 2y ago
  I just add .envrc and shell.nix to my global gitignore. Along with docker-compose.override.yml. You can always force-add an ignored file, it'll be tracked from then on.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

schacon 2y ago

I mentioned it in the post as well, but Git will look in `.config/git/ignore` if you prefer to just use that rather than setting a new path. There's also a possible downside here in having things hidden for you but not for others since it's not in your `.gitignore` project file. I'm honestly kind of on the fence about this one, I don't have much in that file for those reasons.

fragmede 2y ago
I have .DS_store in mine, as I'm on a Mac and don't need to spread that to others.
- schacon 2y ago
  Good point.
- zelphirkalt 2y ago
  Or ".vscode" folder. No need to spread that to everyone, who might not even be using VSCode or VSCodium. Like we also don't see all of the following being added everywhere: ".settings" (eclipse), ".idea" (IntelliJ Idea), ".nbproject" (I believe Netbeans) and others everywhere in the repos. Yet we see it for VSCode. I think Github encourages this annoying behavior, because it is Microsoft's own tool, so it gets treated differently. People see this and copy this bad habit without reflecting on it. What so many others do cannot possibly be wrong... I find it annoying to have those folders on my machine, that I don't need, but yet are checked into the git tree, so I basically cannot delete them, without affecting another person, when they pull my changes. Why you check that in bro??? Ugh. I don't check in my Emacs backup files and shit either. I would like to aee their long faces, when faced with all of the files and folders other tools leave behind. People just aren't capable to configure their editors properly I guess and therefore rely on local config for things that could be global config or in a ".editorconfig", like for example trimming trailing whitespace.
  - tomnipotent 2y ago
    It's very common for shared project-specific setting files to be stored in ".vscode" that are used by all developers on the project, including launch/task configurations. VSCode settings are hierarchical and composable (non-scalar keys are merged).
    - mvanbaak 2y ago
      if one would use ".editorconfig" it works with multiple editors/IDEs. See editorconfig.org for more info :)
    - zelphirkalt 2y ago
      I am aware of that. Yet I don't see other cohorts doing that with their editor/IDE of choice. It seems to be mostly the "I don't want to configure my tools" subset, who does that. What if I switch my tool of choice 2-3 times? Do I get to commit all my project management IDE/editor specific files too? How much stuff do we want to accumulate in the git repo?
      - tomnipotent 2y ago
        > Do I get to commit all my project management IDE/editor specific files too Yes, if those files apply to all team members using the same tool absolutely check them in. What's the problem? It reads to me like maybe you don't know what these files are actually used for and why a team benefits from sharing them.
        zelphirkalt 2y ago
        The whole point is, that not everyone is in the bubble of VS Code users, and not everyone wants to have that stuff on their machine, and not everyone is benefiting from it either. Imagine cloning some repo and having extra stuff in there from 3 different IDEs and 3 different editors. This stuff clutters up the repo.

marcyb5st 2y ago

I prefer difftastic (https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic) as diff tool. I think it's the most readable and understandable diff.

schacon 2y ago
At the end of the article, I also subtly plugged: * https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy * https://github.com/dandavison/delta https://github.com/dandavison/delta Also both great TUI diff tools

whirlwin 2y ago

There's also an ongoing effort among creators to not pollute the home directory with too many hidden files. Instead, as the blog post mentions, there exist .config/git/ignore which I think is a more scalable approach in the long run. Especially looking at the number of tools and utilities requiring one or several config files.

n_plus_1_acc 2y ago

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore

wh33zle 2y ago

One of the coolest things I've learned about recently is `.git/info/exclude`. It allows you to ignore files in the local repo without modifying the repo's .gitignore Very useful if you want to add your own .envrc or shell.nix to a repo.

chuckadams 2y ago
I just add .envrc and shell.nix to my global gitignore. Along with docker-compose.override.yml. You can always force-add an ignored file, it'll be tracked from then on.