为何.git/info/exclude仅对项目根目录文件生效，子目录不生效？

当前项目中，.git/info/exclude只能排除根目录下的test.txt，子目录里的同名文件无法被排除，但其他项目无此问题。使用Git版本为git version 2.34.1。

问题复现步骤 #

# 创建根目录下的test.txt
$ echo "test" > test.txt

# 检测到未跟踪文件
$ git status
On branch main
Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
        test.txt

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

# 将test.txt加入.git/info/exclude
$ echo "test.txt" >> .git/info/exclude 

# 根目录文件已被排除，工作树干净
$ git status
On branch main
nothing to commit, working tree clean

# 在子目录创建同名文件
$ echo "test" > my-project/src/main/resources/test.txt

# 子目录下的test.txt仍显示为未跟踪
$ git status
On branch main
Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
        my-project/src/main/resources/test.txt

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

相关文件内容 #

.git/info/exclude #

$ cat -et .git/info/exclude 
# git ls-files --others --exclude-from=.git/info/exclude$
# Lines that start with '#' are comments.$
# For a project mostly in C, the following would be a good set of$
# exclude patterns (uncomment them if you want to use them):$
# *.[oa]$
# *~$
test.txt$

.gitignore #

$ cat -et .gitignore 
**/target/**$
!**/src/**$
.metadata$
.settings$
.classpath$
.project$
.idea$
*.iml$

问题原因及解决办法 #

核心原因 #

1. 默认的test.txt规则仅匹配当前目录下的文件，不递归子目录；
2. .gitignore中的!**/src/**是强制包含规则，优先级高于排除规则，会让src目录下所有文件（包括test.txt）不受.git/info/exclude约束。

解决方法 #

方法一：修改.git/info/exclude的递归规则

把test.txt改成**/test.txt，这样就能匹配任意层级的test.txt：

# 替换原规则（Linux/macOS）
sed -i 's/test.txt/**\/test.txt/g' .git/info/exclude

Windows环境直接打开.git/info/exclude文件手动修改即可。

方法二：调整.gitignore规则

如果必须保留!**/src/**，就在.gitignore末尾补充排除规则，覆盖强制包含：

echo "**/test.txt" >> .gitignore

这样所有层级的test.txt都会被排除，不受src目录的强制包含影响。

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者ka3ak