Junio C Hamano wrote: > There is no "untracked but precious" vs "untracked and expendable" > difference in the current system. An untracked file that matches > patterns listed in .gitignore is treated as the latter. [...] > We've discussed the lack of "untracked but precious" class a few > times on the list in the past, but I do not recall the topic came up > in the recent past. It perhaps is because nobody found that class > useful enough so far. The most recent example I can find is 2010: http://public-inbox.org/git/4C6A1C5B.4030304@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/. It also came up in 2007: http://public-inbox.org/git/C0E9F681E68D48EB8989022D11FEE3D1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ Earlier in that year it even made the "What's not in 1.5.2" list. http://public-inbox.org/git/11793556383977-git-send-email-junkio@xxxxxxx/ Perhaps those references could be a useful starting point for an interested person's thinking. Jonathan