diff mercurial/help/hgignore.txt @ 14044:0528b69f8db4

help: move hgignore man page into built-in help (issue2769)

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/mercurial/help/hgignore.txt	Sun Apr 17 23:08:35 2011 +0800
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+Synopsis
+--------
+
+The Mercurial system uses a file called ``.hgignore`` in the root
+directory of a repository to control its behavior when it searches
+for files that it is not currently tracking.
+
+Description
+-----------
+
+The working directory of a Mercurial repository will often contain
+files that should not be tracked by Mercurial. These include backup
+files created by editors and build products created by compilers.
+These files can be ignored by listing them in a ``.hgignore`` file in
+the root of the working directory. The ``.hgignore`` file must be
+created manually. It is typically put under version control, so that
+the settings will propagate to other repositories with push and pull.
+
+An untracked file is ignored if its path relative to the repository
+root directory, or any prefix path of that path, is matched against
+any pattern in ``.hgignore``.
+
+For example, say we have an untracked file, ``file.c``, at
+``a/b/file.c`` inside our repository. Mercurial will ignore ``file.c``
+if any pattern in ``.hgignore`` matches ``a/b/file.c``, ``a/b`` or ``a``.
+
+In addition, a Mercurial configuration file can reference a set of
+per-user or global ignore files. See the
+``http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/hgrc.5.html`` man page for details
+of how to configure these files. Look for the "ignore" entry in the
+"ui" section.
+
+To control Mercurial's handling of files that it manages, see the
+``http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/hg.1.html`` man page. Look for
+the ``-I`` and ``-X`` options.
+
+Syntax
+------
+
+An ignore file is a plain text file consisting of a list of patterns,
+with one pattern per line. Empty lines are skipped. The ``#``
+character is treated as a comment character, and the ``\`` character
+is treated as an escape character.
+
+Mercurial supports several pattern syntaxes. The default syntax used
+is Python/Perl-style regular expressions.
+
+To change the syntax used, use a line of the following form::
+
+  syntax: NAME
+
+where ``NAME`` is one of the following:
+
+``regexp``
+  Regular expression, Python/Perl syntax.
+``glob``
+  Shell-style glob.
+
+The chosen syntax stays in effect when parsing all patterns that
+follow, until another syntax is selected.
+
+Neither glob nor regexp patterns are rooted. A glob-syntax pattern of
+the form ``*.c`` will match a file ending in ``.c`` in any directory,
+and a regexp pattern of the form ``\.c$`` will do the same. To root a
+regexp pattern, start it with ``^``.
+
+Example
+-------
+
+Here is an example ignore file. ::
+
+  # use glob syntax.
+  syntax: glob
+
+  *.elc
+  *.pyc
+  *~
+
+  # switch to regexp syntax.
+  syntax: regexp
+  ^\.pc/