FEATURE: Always show files tracked by git

[fschoenm]

Did you check the docs?

• [X] I have read all the docs.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I tried to find a solution but it doesn't seem possible at the moment?

I know that I can manually add some hidden files to the always_show list of files/directories but there doesn't seem to be a way to always show all files that are tracked by git but still hide untracked dotfiles or other hidden files.

Describe the solution you'd like.

Add a mode always_show_git_tracked or similar to show files that are tracked by git.

Describe alternatives you've considered.

No response

Additional Context

No response

[wookayin]

+1

Or use additional option for hide_dotfiles rather than creating a new option:

  filtered_items = {
          hide_dotfiles = true,  -- true(='always') | 'untracked' | false(='never')
  }

My proposal is to have hide_dotfiles = "untracked" by default, i.e., hide a .dotfile if it is untracked. If it's git-tracked or not-git-ignored, then the files won't be hidden. This should also be the sensible default behavior.

[cseickel]

The problem I have with that is that it seems like complexity we have already solved with the always_show option. Wouldn't the dotfiles that are tracked by git be a very limited set of files with known names?

https://github.com/nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim/blob/7e2a3caf999e2028abb643eb0472f351b2777591/lua/neo-tree/defaults.lua#L472-L474

I would prefer adding an always_show_by_pattern feature if that is enough to handle the real world examples of dotfiles tracked by git.

[wookayin]

The files that should be shown are project-dependent and therefore it doesn't make much sense to put the list of such files into neovim configs. The information has to be read (during runtime) from the git repository (like git ls-files). I believe this problem is closer to controlling the degree of hiding .dotfiles taking git VCS into account.

[fschoenm]

There can be a lot of patterns for dotfiles, depending on which project types you're working with. Maybe you even want to commit sometimes your project configuration dotfiles and sometimes not.

IMO using git tracked files is a very user friendly, common sense solution for this problem that has the added benefit that it works out of the box.

[cseickel]

OK, you've convinced me. I think @wookayin's suggestion make sense:https://github.com/nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim/issues/1154#issuecomment-1743318651

If someone wants to implement this, I will accept the PR. It's not a high priority for me personally though so I don't think I would get to it any time soon.