libra check-ignore

Report which pathnames are excluded by .libraignore rules — the equivalent of git check-ignore, adapted to Libra's ignore file.

Intentional difference: Libra's ignore rules live in .libraignore, not .gitignore (see docs/development/commands/_compatibility.md). The matching engine, precedence, and pattern syntax are otherwise the same as Git's.

Synopsis

libra check-ignore [-v] [-n] [-z] [--no-index] <pathname>...
libra check-ignore [-v] [-n] [-z] [--no-index] --stdin

Description

For each <pathname> (given on the command line, or read from --stdin), check-ignore consults the active .libraignore rules and prints the paths that are ignored (excluded). It is a read-only query: it never changes the index or the working tree.

By default a path that is already tracked in the index is reported as not ignored (an explicit add overrides the rules). Pass --no-index to report a raw pattern match even for a tracked path — useful for debugging why a path was not ignored as expected.

Options

Option	Description	Example
<pathname>...	One or more paths to test. Mutually exclusive with --stdin.	libra check-ignore build/ a.log
--stdin	Read pathnames from standard input instead of the command line (newline-separated, or NUL-separated with -z).	libra check-ignore --stdin < paths.txt
-z	Use NUL (\0) as the delimiter for --stdin input and for output. Safe for pathnames containing whitespace or newlines.	libra check-ignore -z --stdin
-v, --verbose	For every matched path, also print the deciding rule: <source>:<line>:<pattern>\t<path>. The line number is recovered by scanning the source file.	libra check-ignore -v target/
-n, --non-matching	Also output pathnames that match no pattern (with empty source/line/pattern fields). Requires -v.	libra check-ignore -v -n a.txt b.log
--no-index	Do not consult the index; report a pattern match even for a tracked path.	libra check-ignore --no-index tracked.log
--json / --machine	Structured output: { results: [{ path, ignored, source?, line?, pattern? }] }.	libra check-ignore --json target/

Exit codes

Aligned with Git:

Code	Meaning
0	At least one of the given paths is ignored.
1	None of the given paths are ignored (a clean signal, not an error; no output on stderr).
128	Usage error (e.g. -n without -v, paths combined with --stdin) or not inside a repository.

Output

• Default: one ignored pathname per line (NUL-terminated with -z).
• -v: <source>:<line>:<pattern>\t<path> per line. With -z, the four fields are NUL-separated and the record is NUL-terminated.
• -n (with -v): non-matching paths appear with empty source/line/pattern.

Examples

# Is target/ ignored?
libra check-ignore target/

# Show the rule that ignores each path
libra check-ignore -v build/ debug.log

# Stream pathnames from another command, NUL-framed
libra ls-files --others -z | libra check-ignore -z --stdin

# Debug: would this path match a rule even though it is tracked?
libra check-ignore --no-index src/generated.rs

# Structured output for agents
libra check-ignore --json target/ node_modules/

Comparison with Git

Task	Libra	Git
Check a path	libra check-ignore target/	git check-ignore target/
Show the matching rule	libra check-ignore -v target/	git check-ignore -v target/
Read from stdin	libra check-ignore --stdin	git check-ignore --stdin
Ignore the index	libra check-ignore --no-index p	git check-ignore --no-index p

Not exposed (deferred): Git's --exclude, --exclude-from, --exclude-per-directory, and full pathspec magic.