+the user (or the porcelain) to see what should eventually be recorded at the
+path. (see git-read-tree for more information on state)
+
+When `-z` option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters
+in pathnames are represented as `\t`, `\n`, and `\\`,
+respectively.
+
+
+Exclude Patterns
+----------------
+
+'git-ls-files' can use a list of "exclude patterns" when
+traversing the directory tree and finding files to show when the
+flags --others or --ignored are specified.
+
+These exclude patterns come from these places:
+
+ 1. command line flag --exclude=<pattern> specifies a single
+ pattern.
+
+ 2. command line flag --exclude-from=<file> specifies a list of
+ patterns stored in a file.
+
+ 3. command line flag --exclude-per-directory=<name> specifies
+ a name of the file in each directory 'git-ls-files'
+ examines, and if exists, its contents are used as an
+ additional list of patterns.
+
+An exclude pattern file used by (2) and (3) contains one pattern
+per line. A line that starts with a '#' can be used as comment
+for readability.
+
+There are three lists of patterns that are in effect at a given
+time. They are built and ordered in the following way:
+
+ * --exclude=<pattern> from the command line; patterns are
+ ordered in the same order as they appear on the command line.
+
+ * lines read from --exclude-from=<file>; patterns are ordered
+ in the same order as they appear in the file.
+
+ * When --exclude-per-directory=<name> is specified, upon
+ entering a directory that has such a file, its contents are
+ appended at the end of the current "list of patterns". They
+ are popped off when leaving the directory.
+
+Each pattern in the pattern list specifies "a match pattern" and
+optionally the fate; either a file that matches the pattern is
+considered excluded or included. A filename is matched against
+the patterns in the three lists; the --exclude-from list is
+checked first, then the --exclude-per-directory list, and then
+finally the --exclude list. The last match determines its fate.
+If there is no match in the three lists, the fate is "included".
+
+A pattern specified on the command line with --exclude or read
+from the file specified with --exclude-from is relative to the
+top of the directory tree. A pattern read from a file specified
+by --exclude-per-directory is relative to the directory that the
+pattern file appears in.
+
+An exclude pattern is of the following format:
+
+ - an optional prefix '!' which means that the fate this pattern
+ specifies is "include", not the usual "exclude"; the
+ remainder of the pattern string is interpreted according to
+ the following rules.
+
+ - if it does not contain a slash '/', it is a shell glob
+ pattern and used to match against the filename without
+ leading directories (i.e. the same way as the current
+ implementation).
+
+ - otherwise, it is a shell glob pattern, suitable for
+ consumption by fnmatch(3) with FNM_PATHNAME flag. I.e. a
+ slash in the pattern must match a slash in the pathname.
+ "Documentation/\*.html" matches "Documentation/git.html" but
+ not "ppc/ppc.html". As a natural exception, "/*.c" matches
+ "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
+
+An example:
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+ $ cat .git/ignore
+ # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
+ *.[oa]
+ $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
+ # ignore generated html files,
+ *.html
+ # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
+ !foo.html
+ $ git-ls-files --ignored \
+ --exclude='Documentation/*.[0-9]' \
+ --exclude-from=.git/ignore \
+ --exclude-per-directory=.gitignore
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+