Merge branch 'maint'

[git.git] / Documentation / gitignore.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index cafdac7e3daafb4df5e7eb1d237e44ab83734be8..59321a2e82b1e141746d94c439452b52b84994ad 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -13,9 +13,14 @@ DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 
 A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
-git should ignore.  Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a
-pattern.
-
+git should ignore.
+Note that all the `gitignore` files really concern only files
+that are not already tracked by git;
+in order to ignore uncommitted changes in already tracked files,
+please refer to the 'git update-index --assume-unchanged'
+documentation.
+
+Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
 When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks
 `gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
 order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
@@ -51,10 +56,10 @@ the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
 `core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`.
 
 The underlying git plumbing tools, such as
-`git-ls-files` and `git-read-tree`, read
+'git-ls-files' and 'git-read-tree', read
 `gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
 files specified by command-line options.  Higher-level git
-tools, such as `git-status` and `git-add`,
+tools, such as 'git-status' and 'git-add',
 use patterns from the sources specified above.
 
 Patterns have the following format: