sparse-checkout: clear tracked sparse dirs

When changing the scope of a sparse-checkout using cone mode, we might
have some tracked directories go out of scope. The current logic removes
the tracked files from within those directories, but leaves the ignored
files within those directories. This is a bit unexpected to users who
have given input to Git saying they don't need those directories
anymore.

This is something that is new to the cone mode pattern type: the user
has explicitly said "I want these directories and _not_ those
directories." The typical sparse-checkout patterns more generally apply
to "I want files with with these patterns" so it is natural to leave
ignored files as they are. This focus on directories in cone mode
provides us an opportunity to change the behavior.

Leaving these ignored files in the sparse directories makes it
impossible to gain performance benefits in the sparse index. When we
track into these directories, we need to know if the files are ignored
or not, which might depend on the _tracked_ .gitignore file(s) within
the sparse directory. This depends on the indexed version of the file,
so the sparse directory must be expanded.

We must take special care to look for untracked, non-ignored files in
these directories before deleting them. We do not want to delete any
meaningful work that the users were doing in those directories and
perhaps forgot to add and commit before switching sparse-checkout
definitions. Since those untracked files might be code files that
generated ignored build output, also do not delete any ignored files
from these directories in that case. The users can recover their state
by resetting their sparse-checkout definition to include that directory
and continue. Alternatively, they can see the warning that is presented
and delete the directory themselves to regain the performance they
expect.

By deleting the sparse directories when changing scope (or running 'git
sparse-checkout reapply') we regain these performance benefits as if the
repository was in a clean state.

Since these ignored files are frequently build output or helper files
from IDEs, the users should not need the files now that the tracked
files are removed. If the tracked files reappear, then they will have
newer timestamps than the build artifacts, so the artifacts will need to
be regenerated anyway.

Use the sparse-index as a data structure in order to find the sparse
directories that can be safely deleted. Re-expand the index to a full
one if it was full before.

Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Reviewed-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt
index fdcf43f87c..42056ee9ff 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt
@@ -210,6 +210,16 @@ case-insensitive check. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in the
 'git sparse-checkout set' command to reflect the expected cone in the working
 directory.
 
+When changing the sparse-checkout patterns in cone mode, Git will inspect each
+tracked directory that is not within the sparse-checkout cone to see if it
+contains any untracked files. If all of those files are ignored due to the
+`.gitignore` patterns, then the directory will be deleted. If any of the
+untracked files within that directory is not ignored, then no deletions will
+occur within that directory and a warning message will appear. If these files
+are important, then reset your sparse-checkout definition so they are included,
+use `git add` and `git commit` to store them, then remove any remaining files
+manually to ensure Git can behave optimally.
+
 
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