Recommended .gitignore for Node-RED

Question

Is there a standard or recommended .gitignore file to use with Node-RED projects? Or are there files or folders that should be ignored? For example, should files like .config.json or flow_cred.json be ignored?

At present I'm using the Node template generated by gitignore.io (see below), but this doesn't contain anything specific to Node-RED.

I found these github projects with .gitignore files:

• https://github.com/dceejay/node-red-project-starter/blob/master/.gitignore
• https://github.com/natcl/node-red-project-template/blob/master/.gitignore
• https://github.com/natcl/electron-node-red/blob/master/.gitignore

But I'm unsure if these are generic to any Node-RED project.

The Node .gitignore file:

# Created by https://www.gitignore.io/api/node
# Edit at https://www.gitignore.io/?templates=node

### Node ###
# Logs
logs
*.log
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*
lerna-debug.log*

# Diagnostic reports (https://nodejs.org/api/report.html)
report.[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*.json

# Runtime data
pids
*.pid
*.seed
*.pid.lock

# Directory for instrumented libs generated by jscoverage/JSCover
lib-cov

# Coverage directory used by tools like istanbul
coverage
*.lcov

# nyc test coverage
.nyc_output

# Grunt intermediate storage (https://gruntjs.com/creating-plugins#storing-task-files)
.grunt

# Bower dependency directory (https://bower.io/)
bower_components

# node-waf configuration
.lock-wscript

# Compiled binary addons (https://nodejs.org/api/addons.html)
build/Release

# Dependency directories
node_modules/
jspm_packages/

# TypeScript v1 declaration files
typings/

# TypeScript cache
*.tsbuildinfo

# Optional npm cache directory
.npm

# Optional eslint cache
.eslintcache

# Optional REPL history
.node_repl_history

# Output of 'npm pack'
*.tgz

# Yarn Integrity file
.yarn-integrity

# dotenv environment variables file
.env
.env.test

# parcel-bundler cache (https://parceljs.org/)
.cache

# next.js build output
.next

# nuxt.js build output
.nuxt

# react / gatsby 
public/

# vuepress build output
.vuepress/dist

# Serverless directories
.serverless/

# FuseBox cache
.fusebox/

# DynamoDB Local files
.dynamodb/

# End of https://www.gitignore.io/api/node

Forearm

Answer 1

Have you gone through the node-red projects? Here is a link to the video and here is the documentation of how you can set it up.

It creates a folder with your flows, encrypts your credentials, adds a read-me and a file with your package dependencies. It also lets you set up your git/GitHub account so you can push to your local and remote repositories safely and from the node red console.

The .gitignore file inside your project folder automatically starts with *.backup

This is because node-red creates a copy of your files and appends it .backup every time you deploy the nodes.

This way, the only thing you need to back up separately is a file outside your project folder called config_projects.json which stores your encryption key for your credentials.

I just set it up and I'm really happy with it.

Chlorate