bug: the `target/` build directory is committed to the repository — it contains compiled Rust artifacts, debug symbols, and incremental build cache (~100-500MB), bloating clone size and making `git clone` prohibitively slow for contributors

[divyanshim27]

🐛 Repository Hygiene Issue

The repository file listing shows a committed target/ directory. The Rust target/ directory contains:

• target/release/clipwallet — the compiled binary (duplicates GitHub Releases)
• target/debug/ — debug build artifacts with embedded DWARF debug symbols
• target/.fingerprint/ — incremental compilation cache (machine-specific, invalid for other contributors)
• target/deps/ — compiled dependency crates

Problems caused by committing target/:

1. Clone size: A typical Rust target/ directory is 100MB–2GB. Contributors on slow connections must download all of this unnecessarily.
2. Platform incompatibility: The macOS-compiled binary in target/release/clipwallet will not run on any other machine's architecture (x86 vs ARM). Contributors who clone and run it directly will get Exec format error.
3. Stale cache: The incremental build fingerprints in target/.fingerprint/ are tied to the original build machine's file paths and timestamps. Cargo will likely ignore or partially invalidate them, providing no build speedup.
4. Security: Debug binaries contain full symbol tables and may include paths from the developer's local machine, leaking directory structure information.

Proposed Fix

Step 1 — Remove target/ and purge from git history

# Remove from tracking
git rm -r --cached target/

# Purge from all history (required — git rm only removes from future commits)
pip install git-filter-repo
git filter-repo --path target --invert-paths

git push origin --force --all

Step 2 — Verify .gitignore is correct

The repository has a .gitignore — verify it includes:

# Rust build artifacts
/target/
Cargo.lock  # Optional for binaries — keep for reproducible builds

# macOS artifacts
.DS_Store
*.dSYM/

# Distribution artifacts — these are generated by build_release.sh
/dist/*.tar.gz
/dist/*.zip

Note: Cargo.lock should be committed for binary crates (it ensures reproducible builds). Only library crates should omit it.

Step 3 — Update the contributing guide

Document that contributors should run cargo build --release locally and never commit the target/ directory:

<!-- CONTRIBUTING or README -->
### Building from Source
After cloning, build the binary locally:
```bash
cargo build --release
# Binary is at: target/release/clipwallet
```
Do NOT commit the `target/` directory — it is machine-specific and ignored by `.gitignore`.

Files to Modify

File	Change
target/	Delete from repository and purge from git history
.gitignore	Verify /target/ is listed (add if missing)
CONTRIBUTION_CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md	Add note about never committing target/

Suggested labels: bug, repository-hygiene, good first issue

I would like to work on this. Could you please assign it to me?

[divyanshim27]

Hey @shaaravraghu ,
Please assign it to me under GSSoC 2026.
/claim /assign /claim-assignment