SYNOPSIS

--------

directory of a repository to control its behavior when it searches

for files that it is not currently tracking.

DESCRIPTION

-----------

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 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 hgrc(5) 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

hg(1) man page. Look for the "-I" and "-X" options.

SYNTAX

------

An ignore file is a plain text file consisting of a list of patterns,

is treated as an escape character.

Mercurial supports several pattern syntaxes. The default syntax used

is Python/Perl-style regular expressions.

  Regular expression, Python/Perl syntax.

  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

EXAMPLE

-------

  # use glob syntax.

  syntax: glob

  *.elc

  *.pyc

  *~

  # switch to regexp syntax.

  syntax: regexp

  ^\.pc/

AUTHOR

------

Vadim Gelfer <vadim.gelfer@gmail.com>

Mercurial was written by Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>.

SEE ALSO

--------

hg(1), hgrc(5)

COPYING

-------

This manual page is copyright 2006 Vadim Gelfer.

Mercurial is copyright 2005-2009 Matt Mackall.

Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General

Public License (GPL).