Re: [GIT PULL] x86/entry for 7.0-rc1

[Linus Torvalds]

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 at 13:09, Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Please pull some x86/entry changes for 7.0-rc1. This is entirely
> composed of a set of long overdue VDSO cleanups.

Argh, I didn't notice this problem until after pushing things out, but
that pull also removes the old filenames from the .gitignore file.

That may feel like the right thing to do, but it's not. It means that
anybody with a build tree that was active before they updated will
suddenly now see those old stale generated filenames in 'git status'
output etc.

Most of the time that's only a visual oddity that may confuse people.

But it can cause - and has caused - actual real problems when people
then do exactly the wrong thing as a result (ie they mindlessly commit
the files because they didn't look very closely at what they did and
they had other work of their own that they *did* mean to commit).

So .gitignore files should only add new names, not remove old names.

Sure, _eventually_ the stale entries can be removed, but not in some
kind of immediate short timeframe.

The old stale files don't go away until you do an explicit "git clean"
(I don't think even a "make clean" will remove those, I didn't check).

I added the files back to the .gitignore file. I'm sure I have missed
similar things in the past just because they happen to only be
generated in configurations that I happen to test, but I thought I'd
point this out so that people are more aware of this whole issue.

Maybe some people keep their build trees religiously clean or entirely
separate from their source trees. But I certainly don't, and I know
many other developers don't.

            Linus