Bug-ish: global gitignore with non-UTF-8 encoding is silently ignored

[James Braza]

Hello Git mailing list,

I am coming here from Windows global gitignore not working... "Untracked files" which led to Non UTF-8 encoded .gitignore files are silently ignored.

The core issue is:

1. A gitignore made via PowerShell, which used a UTF-16 LE encoding
2. Git silently ignores the global gitignore, since it wasn't UTF-8 encoding
3. An end user loses a lot of time understanding this nuance

This behavior is not a bug, but I would consider it to be one, since it has a negative outcome.

It looks like in the above linked issue:

• A Git for Windows maintainer suggested to email this list.  I don't think that issue's OP ever emailed this list, so I am doing so now
• The maintainer also detailed a starting point in the issue after closing it

I think Git should either:

• Start supporting UTF-16 LE
• Issue a warning for non-supported encodings

Please consider this as a feature request,

-James