fix -Wformat (STRLEN vs int) and clang -Wparentheses warnings

also use the clang recommendation:
  using the result of an assignment as a condition with parentheses [-Wparentheses]
add .gitignore
[RT #41285] possible fix for test failures with non-english locale

Have no non-english system to test unfortunately
skip patching the src for newWarnings style, these are the default
ChangeLog