git status: document trade-offs in choosing parameters to the -u option
In some repostories users experience that "git status" command takes long time. The command spends some time searching the file system for untracked files. Explain the trade-off struck by the default choice of `normal` to help users make an appropriate choice better, before talking about the configuration variable. Inspired by Torsten Bögershausen. Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Junio C Hamano committed
Mar 15, 2013 at 09:53 UTC
5823eb2b28696bf0eb25f6ca35b303447869f85c
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Documentation/git-status.txt
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@@ -43,15 +43,21 @@ OPTIONS
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Show untracked files.
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+
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The mode parameter is optional (defaults to 'all'), and is used to
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-specify the handling of untracked files; when -u is not used, the
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-default is 'normal', i.e. show untracked files and directories.
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+specify the handling of untracked files.
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+
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The possible options are:
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+
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- - 'no' - Show no untracked files
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- - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
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+ - 'no' - Show no untracked files.
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+ - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories.
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- 'all' - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
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+
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+When `-u` option is not used, untracked files and directories are
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+shown (i.e. the same as specifying `normal`), to help you avoid
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+forgetting to add newly created files. Because it takes extra work
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+to find untracked files in the filesystem, this mode may take some
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+time in a large working tree. You can use `no` to have `git status`
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+return more quickly without showing untracked files.
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++
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The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles
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configuration variable documented in linkgit:git-config[1].
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