From a8077c19131a86fa123c5be2c8b735acdb5dacf4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2025 10:30:07 +0000
Subject: sparse-checkout: match some 'clean' behavior

The 'git sparse-checkout clean' subcommand is somewhat similar to 'git
clean' in that it will delete files that should not be in the worktree.
The big difference is that it focuses on the directories that should not
be in the worktree due to cone-mode sparse-checkout. It also does not
discriminate in the kinds of files and focuses on deleting entire
directories.

However, there are some restrictions that would be good to bring over
from 'git clean', specifically how it refuses to do anything without the
'-f'/'--force' or '-n'/'--dry-run' arguments. The 'clean.requireForce'
config can be set to 'false' to imply '--force'.

Add this behavior to avoid accidental deletion of files that cannot be
recovered from Git.

Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.adoc | 9 +++++++++
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)

(limited to 'Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.adoc')

diff --git a/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.adoc b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.adoc
index baaebce746..42050ff5b5 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.adoc
@@ -127,6 +127,15 @@ clean` to resolve these cases.
 This command can be used to be sure the sparse index works efficiently,
 though it does not require enabling the sparse index feature via the
 `index.sparse=true` configuration.
++
+To prevent accidental deletion of worktree files, the `clean` subcommand
+will not delete any files without the `-f` or `--force` option, unless
+the `clean.requireForce` config option is set to `false`.
++
+The `--dry-run` option will list the directories that would be removed
+without deleting them. Running in this mode can be helpful to predict the
+behavior of the clean comand or to determine which kinds of files are left
+in the sparse directories.
 
 'disable'::
 	Disable the `core.sparseCheckout` config setting, and restore the
-- 
cgit v1.3

