1GITIGNORE(5) Git Manual GITIGNORE(5)
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6 gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
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9 $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
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12 A gitignore file specifies intentionally untracked files that git
13 should ignore. Files already tracked by git are not affected; see the
14 NOTES below for details.
15 Each line in a gitignore file specifies a pattern. When deciding
17 whether to ignore a path, git normally checks gitignore patterns from
18 multiple sources, with the following order of precedence, from highest
19 to lowest (within one level of precedence, the last matching pattern
20 decides the outcome):
21 · Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
23 them.
24 · Patterns read from a .gitignore file in the same directory as the
26 path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the higher level
27 files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden by
28 those in lower level files down to the directory containing the
29 file. These patterns match relative to the location of the
30 .gitignore file. A project normally includes such .gitignore files
31 in its repository, containing patterns for files generated as part
32 of the project build.
33 · Patterns read from $GIT_DIR/info/exclude.
35 · Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration variable
37 core.excludesfile.
38 Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
40 be used. Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
41 other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want
42 to ignore) should go into a .gitignore file. Patterns which are
43 specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared
44 with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside
45 the repository but are specific to one user’s workflow) should go into
46 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file. Patterns which a user wants git to
47 ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by
48 the user’s editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
49 core.excludesfile in the user’s ~/.gitconfig.
50 The underlying git plumbing tools, such as git ls-files and git
52 read-tree, read gitignore patterns specified by command-line options,
53 or from files specified by command-line options. Higher-level git
54 tools, such as git status and git add, use patterns from the sources
55 specified above.
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58 · A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for
59 readability.
60 · A line starting with # serves as a comment.
62 · An optional prefix ! which negates the pattern; any matching file
64 excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. If a
65 negated pattern matches, this will override lower precedence
66 patterns sources.
67 · If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the purpose of
69 the following description, but it would only find a match with a
70 directory. In other words, foo/ will match a directory foo and
71 paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a
72 symbolic link foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec
73 works in general in git).
74 · If the pattern does not contain a slash /, git treats it as a shell
76 glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname relative
77 to the location of the .gitignore file (relative to the toplevel of
78 the work tree if not from a .gitignore file).
79 · Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable for
81 consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag: wildcards in
82 the pattern will not match a / in the pathname. For example,
83 "Documentation/*.html" matches "Documentation/git.html" but not
84 "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html" or
85 "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
86 · A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname. For example,
88 "/*.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
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91 The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not
92 tracked by git remain untracked.
93 To ignore uncommitted changes in a file that is already tracked, use
95 git update-index --assume-unchanged.
96 To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use git rm --cached.
98
100 $ git status
101 [...]
102 # Untracked files:
103 [...]
104 # Documentation/foo.html
105 # Documentation/gitignore.html
106 # file.o
107 # lib.a
108 # src/internal.o
109 [...]
110 $ cat .git/info/exclude
111 # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
112 *.[oa]
113 $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
114 # ignore generated html files,
115 *.html
116 # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
117 !foo.html
118 $ git status
119 [...]
120 # Untracked files:
121 [...]
122 # Documentation/foo.html
123 [...]
124 Another example:
127 $ cat .gitignore
129 vmlinux*
130 $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
131 arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
132 $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
133 The second .gitignore prevents git from ignoring
136 arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S.
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139 git-rm(1), git-update-index(1), gitrepository-layout(5)
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142 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett, Frank
143 Lichtenheld, and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org[1]>.
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146 Part of the git(1) suite
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149 1. git@vger.kernel.org
150 mailto:git@vger.kernel.org
151Git 1.7.4.4 04/11/2011 GITIGNORE(5)