Create a new manpage for the gitignore format, and reference it elsewhere

Only git-ls-files(1) describes the gitignore format in detail, and it does so with reference to git-ls-files options. Most users don't use the plumbing command git-ls-files directly, and shouldn't have to look in its manpage for information on the gitignore format.

Create a new manpage gitignore(5) (Documentation/gitignore.txt), and factor out the gitignore documentation into that file, changing it to refer to .gitignore and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude as used by porcelain commands. Reference gitignore(5) from other relevant manpages. Remove now-redundant information on exclude patterns from git-ls-files(1), leaving only information on how git-ls-files options specify exclude patterns and what precedence they have.

---
 Documentation/Makefile          |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-ls-files.txt  |   99 +++++---------------------------------
 Documentation/git-read-tree.txt |    3 +-
 Documentation/git-status.txt    |    8 +--
 Documentation/gitignore.txt     |  100 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 5 files changed, 120 insertions(+), 92 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/gitignore.txt

index 3f92783..ef4425c 100644
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ MAN1_TXT= \
 	$(filter-out $(addsuffix .txt, $(ARTICLES) $(SP_ARTICLES)), \
 		$(wildcard git-*.txt)) \
 	gitk.txt
-MAN5_TXT=gitattributes.txt
+MAN5_TXT=gitattributes.txt gitignore.txt
 MAN7_TXT=git.txt
 
 DOC_HTML=$(patsubst %.txt,%.html,$(MAN1_TXT) $(MAN5_TXT) $(MAN7_TXT))

index 019c8be..acb5744 100644
@@ -341,7 +341,8 @@ have finished your work-in-progress), attempt the merge again.
 
 See Also
 --------
-gitlink:git-write-tree[1]; gitlink:git-ls-files[1]
+gitlink:git-write-tree[1]; gitlink:git-ls-files[1];
+gitlink:gitignore[5]
 
 
 Author

index d701538..1fd1af1 100644
@@ -42,11 +42,9 @@ mean the same thing and the latter is kept for backward
 compatibility) and `color.status.<slot>` configuration variables
 to colorize its output.
 
-As for gitlink:git-add[1], the configuration variable
-'core.excludesfile' can indicate a path to a file containing patterns
-of file names to exclude, in addition to patterns given in
-'info/exclude' and '.gitignore'.
-
+See Also
+--------
+gitlink:gitignore[5]
 
 Author
 ------

1.5.2

Josh Triplett <[email protected]> writes:

Thanks, but shouldn't all the in-text mention of "gitignore(5)" and friends, not just in "See Also" section, use "gitlink:gitignore[5]" instead?

Yes, thanks. I followed some other example that didn't do that.

New patch momentarily.

- Josh Triplett