Magit: Files missing in status buffer when “Ignore all whitespace” is enabled

Question

In Magit I sometimes toggle Ignore all whitespace in the status buffer. This causes files that contain only whitespace changes to disappear. This means I cannot operate on them without toggling Ignore all whitespace and refreshing. Is there any option to change this behaviour?

Answer 1

Magit just runs git diff --ignore-all-space .... That does not output files that contain only whitespace changes and so Magit doesn't display those either. I think it makes sense for Git/Magit to do that, it's kinda what you requested by using --ignore-all-space.

This means I cannot operate on them

You should still be able to do so. Many commands that default to the file at point (with or without confirmation) instead ask you for a file when invoked while point is not on a file.

So for example to stage a file that only contains whitespace changes move point to something that cannot be staged (e.g. onto "Unmerged into master") and press s as usual and then select the file you want to stage.