X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=Documentation%2Fgitignore.txt;h=98c459dc82be46be706b1d7545d7ec95efd8790c;hb=0ed3a111638e83d1fd179e684222b3d3e0ae440f;hp=2881c9cb92941a24d44d5a9f0d6a71cb06a01c23;hpb=9e1f0a85c68323830ea117092c55192b17aa3ac8;p=git.git

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index 2881c9cb9..98c459dc8 100644
--- 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
@@ -26,8 +31,8 @@ precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
 
  * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
    as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the
-   higher level files (up to the root) being overridden by those in
-   lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
+   higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden
+   by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
    These patterns match relative to the location of the
    `.gitignore` file.  A project normally includes such
    `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
@@ -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
-linkgit:git-ls-files[1] and linkgit:git-read-tree[1], 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 linkgit:git-status[1] and linkgit:git-add[1],
+tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
 use patterns from the sources specified above.
 
 Patterns have the following format:
@@ -92,7 +97,7 @@ Patterns have the following format:
 An example:
 
 --------------------------------------------------------------
-    $ git-status
+    $ git status
     [...]
     # Untracked files:
     [...]
@@ -110,7 +115,7 @@ An example:
     *.html
     # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
     !foo.html
-    $ git-status
+    $ git status
     [...]
     # Untracked files:
     [...]