Re: .gitignore files, take two

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Date: 2010-09-21T05:06:51Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> I suppose you already know my votes, but here they are again just in case.
> ...
> Centralize.
> ...
> All the build products in a normal build.

I don't understand your preference for this together with a centralized
ignore file.  That will be completely unmaintainable IMNSHO.  A
centralized file would work all right if it's limited to the couple
dozen files that are currently listed in .cvsignore's, but I can't see
doing it that way if it has to list every executable and .so built
anywhere in the tree.  You'd get merge conflicts from
completely-unrelated patches, not to mention the fundamental
action-at-a-distance nastiness of a top-level file that knows about
everything going on in every part of the tree.

To put it another way: would you expect anyone to take it seriously
if you proposed moving all the "make clean" rules into the top-level
Makefile?  That's pretty much exactly what this would be.

			regards, tom lane