Files in .gitignore missing from search when Exclude Git Ignore is off

[fastfedora]

Type: Bug

When searching a codebase, files in .gitignore are being excluded from the search even though Exclude Git Ignore is unchecked for the User, Workspace and Folder settings.

Expected behavior is that files in .gitignore are only excluded when Exclude Git Ignore is checked.

Disabling "Exclude Settings and Ignore Files" in the search makes the files appear.

VS Code version: Code 1.80.1 (Universal) (74f6148, 2023-07-12T17:20:23.298Z)
OS version: Darwin arm64 21.6.0
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M1 Pro (8 x 24)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled metal: disabled_off multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled
Load (avg)	32, 29, 23
Memory (System)	16.00GB (0.15GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 77ab6b0a-7967-43bb-909c-90e75503ba8d
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions (17)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
vscode-toggle-quotes	Bri	0.3.6
vscode-eslint	dba	2.4.2
vscode-html-css	ecm	1.13.1
auto-close-tag	for	0.5.14
copilot	Git	1.97.270
copilot-labs	Git	0.14.884
beautify	Hoo	1.5.0
python	ms-	2023.12.0
vscode-pylance	ms-	2023.7.20
jupyter	ms-	2023.6.1101941928
jupyter-keymap	ms-	1.1.2
jupyter-renderers	ms-	1.0.17
vscode-jupyter-cell-tags	ms-	0.1.8
vscode-jupyter-slideshow	ms-	0.1.5
vscode-fileutils	sle	3.10.2
code-spell-checker	str	2.20.5
volar	Vue	1.8.5

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[lszomoru]

Andrea Mah (@andreamah), could you please take an initial look at this one? Thank you!

[andreamah]

Do you have search.useIgnoreFiles enabled? And by "Exclude Git Ignore", I believe you mean the "Explorer: Exclude Git Ignore" (explorer.excludeGitIgnore) setting?

[fastfedora]

Yes, I have search.useIgnoreFiles enabled. And, yes, I mean the explorer.excludeGitIgnore setting.

Note that I have the search.useParentIgnoreFiles unchecked. I don't remember seeing that setting before. Based on its description, it's unclear exactly how it differs from search.useIgnoreFiles, which has almost the exact same description. When searching across a workspace, does "parent directory" mean directories above the folders in the workspace, or folders within the workspace that have parent folders within the workspace with .gitignore and .ignore files (which to me would be just normal .gitignore and .ignore files covered by search.useIgnoreFiles).

[andreamah]

Can you check the settings for search.exclude to see if your folder is excluded there?

search.useParentIgnoreFiles uses ignore files from parent directories to search. In this case, parent directories are the directories that contain your workspace (either directly or transitively). For example,

a/
├─ b/
│  ├─ workspace/
│  │  ├─ workspaceFile.txt
.gitignore

In this case, if you opened your workspace at workspace/, the gitignore in a/ would be obeyed it search.useParentIgnoreFiles was enabled.

[fastfedora]

No, I'm searching for a file and search.exclude doesn't exclude it.

I did just figure it out, I think. If I uncheck search.useIgnoreFiles, then it finds my file.

Now looking at the setting, that makes sense, but the wording is ambiguous: "Controls whether to use .gitignore and .ignore files when searching for files". This can be interpreted as either that searches include the files defined in .gitignore OR that searches use the fact that it is an ignore file and exclude the files defined in .gitignore.

I originally interpreted to be the former, but now see that it is probably the latter.

In general, descriptions of settings should clarify what the title means, rather than just re-stating it in a longer form.

I would propose the descriptions are changed to something like this for improved clarity:

Search: Use Ignore Files search.useIgnoreFiles
When set, excludes from any search the folders and files specified by .gitignore and .ignore files.

[Note: This may need to be further clarified, since the current description says "when searching for files", but it also applies when searching through files for keywords—"from any search" applies to both]

Search: Use Global Ignore Files search.useGlobalIgnoreFiles
When set, excludes from any search the folders and files specified in your global gitignore file (e.g., from $HOME/.config/ignore). Requires Search: Use Ignore Files to be enabled.

Search: Use Parent Ignore Files search.useParentIgnoreFiles
When set, excludes from any search the folders and files specified in .gitignore and .ignore files located in parent directories of your current workspace file. Requires Search: Use Ignore Files to be enabled.

*[Note: This should also be clarified on whether it is the parent directories of your .code-workspace file or parent directories of the top-level folders added into that workspace]

[andreamah]

Makes sense. You can make a PR to fix this if you'd like.

[Ghostbird]

This is extremely confusing. This seems like a bug with explorer.excludeGitIgnore but it's a wrong default value for search.useIgnoreFiles.
Since it overrides values that are false by default, it's extremely confusing that it's true by default.
Personally I consider this a bug.