git/Q/What does git ls-files -i -c --exclude-standard do?

• What does git ls-files -i -c --exclude-standard do?

  • AI Answer

    • Short answer: it lists every tracked file that is also matched by a .gitignore (or other standard exclude) rule — files git is tracking despite an ignore rule saying they should be excluded, typically added earlier with git add -f.
    • Step by step, from the git-ls-files manual:
      • git/ls-files/--cached (-c) selects the tracked files — everything currently in the index.
      • git/ls-files/--ignored (-i) then narrows that selection to only the entries which also match an exclude pattern. Per the flag's own doc, -i "must be used with either an explicit -c or -o" and does nothing on its own — it needs a base selection to filter.
      • git/ls-files/--exclude-standard supplies the exclude patterns to filter against: .git/info/exclude, every .gitignore in the tree, and the user's global excludes file. Without some --exclude* option, -i has no patterns to test against and matches nothing.

    • Measured in this repository

      • .gitignore line 36 has **/CLAUDE.md, yet two CLAUDE.md files are tracked (force-added on purpose so each directory carries agent instructions):

      • Command	Output
        git ls-files -i -c --exclude-standard	journals/CLAUDE.md<br>pages/CLAUDE.md

      • Both paths are tracked (-c) and match the **/CLAUDE.md pattern (-i + --exclude-standard), which is exactly the intersection the three flags together select.
    • Why this combination is useful: plain git status and git ls-files (no flags) don't surface tracked-but-ignored files at all, since ignore rules only ever apply to untracked paths by default. This three-flag form is the standard way to audit "which committed files does my .gitignore think shouldn't be here?"