Is there an ignore command for git like there is for svn?

Question

I am a new user to git and I am starting a new project. I have a bunch of dot files that I would like to ignore. Is there an ignore command for git like there is for svn?

Bedfast

Good alternative to gitignore: git update-index --assume-unchanged <file> , thanks to https://mcmap.net/q/11664/-using-gitignore-to-ignore-but-not-delete-files – Cormier

Answer 1

There is no special git ignore command.

Edit a .gitignore file located in the appropriate place within the working copy. You should then add this .gitignore and commit it. Everyone who clones that repo will than have those files ignored.

Note that only file names starting with / will be relative to the directory .gitignore resides in. Everything else will match files in whatever subdirectory.

You can also edit .git/info/exclude to ignore specific files just in that one working copy. The .git/info/exclude file will not be committed, and will thus only apply locally in this one working copy.

You can also set up a global file with patterns to ignore with git config --global core.excludesfile. This will locally apply to all git working copies on the same user's account.

Run git help gitignore and read the text for the details.

Perri

Not having a simple ignore command seems like such an oversight on the part of the git team. – Seigler

@Seigler At first glance it does, but the simplicity of aliasing a command to add new ones AND the complexity of creating one and working through all the edge cases/gotchas/potential issues of editing a text file also makes sense to leave it to the user. I feel conflicted because I both agree and disagree with you. – Protrusion

Answer 2

A very useful git ignore command comes with the awesome tj/git-extras.

Here are a few usage examples:

List all currently ignored patterns

git ignore

Add a pattern

git ignore "*.log"

Add one of the templates from gitignore.io

git ignore-io -a rails

git-extras provides many more useful commands. Definitely worth trying out.

Diderot

So if I use git ignore "index.html" it will ignore this file? – Edibles

Is the -t command still applicable? When I run it, it just adds the -t and whatever template I try to add into the git ignore file – Ejecta

Answer 3

On Linux/Unix, you can append files to the .gitignore file with the echo command. For example if you want to ignore all .svn folders, run this from the root of the project:

echo .svn/ >> .gitignore

Intemperance

I found out this tweet using that syntax twitter.com/noodl_io/status/669904872704253953 – Edibles

In Git Bash on Windows, I needed to add a preceding / and trailing '\' (to create a new line), such as echo /nbproject/project.properties\ >> .gitignore and echo /nbproject/project.xml\ >> .gitignore. – Aquamanile

That forward slash / character in the end is of paramount importance. Without it, the new rule gets appended to the last entry already existing in the .gitignore file in place of getting created as a new entry at the bottom of the file. – Self

Answer 4

You have two ways of ignoring files:

• .gitignore in any folder will ignore the files as specified in the file for that folder. Using wildcards is possible.
• .git/info/exclude holds the global ignore pattern, similar to the global-ignores in subversions configuration file.

Ruffle

Note that patterns in .gitignore file which do not contain '/' are matched recursively (i.e. also in all subdirectories of the directory the .gitignore file is in), contrary to the case of svn:ignore directory properties in Subversion. – Arnone

Answer 5

Create a file named .gitignore on the root of your repository. In this file you put the relative path to each file you wish to ignore in a single line. You can use the * wildcard.

Embolism

Answer 6

It's useful to define a complete .gitignore file for your project. The reward is safe use of the convenient --all or -a flag to commands like add and commit.

Also, consider defining a global ~/.gitignore file for commonly ignored patterns such as *~, which covers temporary files created by Emacs.

Soho

Answer 7

Using the answers already provided, you can roll your own git ignore command using an alias. Either add this to your ~/.gitconfig file:

ignore = !sh -c 'echo $1 >> .gitignore' -

Or run this command from the (*nix) shell of your choice:

git config --global alias.ignore '!sh -c "echo $1 >> .gitignore" -'

You can likewise create a git exclude command by replacing ignore with exclude and .gitignore with .git/info/exclude in the above.

(If you don't already understand the difference between these two files having read the answers here, see this question.)

Biweekly

The answer here expands $1 correctly: https://mcmap.net/q/11665/-echos-in-gitconfig-aliases-echoing-the-entire-list-of-command-line-arguments-when-only-one-expected – Haplology

Answer 8

You have to install git-extras for this. You can install it in Ubuntu using apt-get,

$ sudo apt-get install git-extras

Then you can use the git ignore command.

$ git ignore file_name

Falcongentle

On Mac, if you have Homebrew installed, you can run brew install git-extras. – Comte

Answer 9

for names not present in the working copy or repo:

echo /globpattern >> .gitignore

or for an existing file (sh type command line):

echo /$(ls -1 file) >> .gitignore   # I use tab completion to select the file to be ignored  
git rm -r --cached file             # if already checked in, deletes it on next commit

Coadunate

Answer 10

You could also use Joe Blau's gitignore.io

Either through the web interfase https://www.gitignore.io/

Or by installing the CLI tool, it's very easy an fast, just type the following on your terminal:

Linux:
echo "function gi() { curl -L -s https://www.gitignore.io/api/\$@ ;}" >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

OSX:
echo "function gi() { curl -L -s https://www.gitignore.io/api/\$@ ;}" >> ~/.bash_profile && source ~/.bash_profile

And then you can just type gi followd by the all the platform/environment elements you need gitignore criteria for.

Example!
Lets say you're working on a node project that includes grunt and you're using webstorm on linux, then you may want to type:
gi linux,webstorm,node,grunt > .gitignore ( to make a brand new file)
or
gi linux,webstorm,node,grunt >> .gitignore ( to append/add the new rules to an existing file)

bam, you're good to go

Hydrogenate