How do I git-add with wildcards when ignored files are present?

Question

I'm using msysgit on Windows 7 x64. I can't figure out how to tell Git to add a lot of files when there are some files that .gitignore might ignore. For example:

1. Initialize a git repository.

2. Create a .gitignore with contents:

   *.foo 

3. Create files "test.txt" and "test.foo".

4. Try git add .

When I try this, git complains that test.foo is ignored and I should use -f if I really want to add it. What I'd rather do is add everything but the files that are configured to be ignored. I looked at the git-add documentation and it looks like -A should help; help says, "... and add all untracked files that are not ignored by .gitignore mechanism." No dice, when I try git add -A . I get the same error. Using -f adds the ignored file, which is not what I want. (The use case is mass-adding files from a VS project after ignoring .suo and other files.)

Is this a problem with the git implementation I'm using, or is there some argument to git-add that I am missing?

Answer 1

Here git add * complains, but git add . does what is expected (1.7.0.4, Linux).

From git-add(1):

The git add command will not add ignored files by default. If any ignored files were explicitly specified on the command line, git add will fail with a list of ignored files. Ignored files reached by directory recursion or filename globbing performed by Git (quote your globs before the shell) will be silently ignored.

Answer 2

Note you can escape more complicated globbing patterns with single quotes as well:

git add '*test*'

will allow git to do its own globbing.