is there a truly compelling rationale for .git/info/exclude?

currently having a discussion with ben straub of "pro git" notoriety, and he and i seem to agree that there's not much value in registering ignore patterns in a repo-specific .git/info/exclude file. on the one hand, the .gitignore files that come with a repo would represent (in ben's

couple questions about git "logical variables" and "git var"

i just ran across "git var" for the first time, and it seems a bit weird. it refers to the (apparently) four git "logical variables": - GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT - GIT_COMMITTER_IDENT - GIT_EDITOR - GIT_PAGER first question -- what is it about precisely those four variables that makes them

distinguishing between staged and unstaged content in a stash?

couple (admittedly trivial) questions about stashing. first, can i clarify that when one stashes content, a stash *always* distinguishes between what was staged, and what was unstaged? that is, when one is stashing, the "--keep-index" option relates to whether or not staged changes are left in

"man git-config", "--list" option misleadingly refers to "config file" (singular)

(i suppose that if i'm going to continue whining about stuff, i might as well clone the git source and start submitting patches.) in "man git-config": -l --list List all variables set in config file, along with their values.

What means "git config bla ~/"?

i'm sure i'm about to embarrass myself but, in "man git-config", OPTIONS, one reads: --path git-config will expand leading ~ to the value of $HOME, and ~user to the home directory for the specified user. This option has no effect when setting the value (but you can use git config