git ignore exception

Question

I have a gitignore file that makes git ignore *.dll files, and that is actually the behavior I want. However, if I want an exception ( i.e. to be able to commit foo.dll), how can I achieve this?

Bornu

possible duplicate of Exceptions in .gitignore – Consequent

fwiw, the granddaddy of duplicate answers on this topic--one that you should look over--would probably be Make .gitignore ignore everything except a few files - very regular activity and several good answers. I'm a particular fan of this answer, which seems clear and thorough. – Automat

Possible duplicate of Make .gitignore ignore everything except a few files – Automat

Answer 1

Use:

*.dll    #Exclude all dlls
!foo.dll #Except for foo.dll

From gitignore:

An optional prefix ! which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will override lower precedence patterns sources.

Dakota

See also answer form @Matiss Jurgelis - it's important addition – Wrongful

Can I add the exception to my project's gitignore and not my global gitignore? For example, if I wanted to include all DLLs in a directory? My gitignore_global has *.dll in it, and my project's gitignore has !Libs/*.dll but that doesn't seem to be working. – Turves

@jkinz, you should try !Libs/**/*.dll. – Maker

@RosbergLinhares Or !**/Libs/*.dll, depending on the folder structure. – Pudency

Thanks, but on a mac adding the comment on the same line as the !foo.dll did invalidate the command. If I add the comment on a separate row it works. – Custom

@Custom I had the same on Windows, # should be avoided. – Scandian

Answer 2

Git ignores folders if you write:

/js

but it can't add exceptions if you do: !/js/jquery or !/js/jquery/ or !/js/jquery/*

You must write:

/js/* 

and only then you can except subfolders like this

!/js/jquery

Miff

However looks like you can't add nested folders, e.g. !/js/jquery/xyzlib will not be ignored... – Recuperative

As @Recuperative says, the folder you "except" from the ignore rule, must be at the same location as the "*" – Mexicali

so /js/*, !/js/jquery, /js/jquery/*, !/js/jquery/xyzlib? Feels like a rather funny way to do it... – Send

With git 2.21 not any of those solutions work - how can they ignore this problem!!!??? – Aflcio

@Recuperative for nested subfolders see https://mcmap.net/q/80218/-git-ignore-exception – Iaea

Answer 3

You can simply git add -f path/to/foo.dll.

.gitignore ignores only files for usual tracking and stuff like git add .

Saberio

Just for more details, the -f tells git to force the adding of this file in the repo since it might ignore it first because of your .gitignore – Gisele

Which is great if you only have one file, less useful if you need a pattern – Haunch

Good to know. But still better manage all the rules in the .gitignore than not knowing some rules are defined else where, especially in a team context – Pesek

Answer 4

To exclude everything in a directory, but some sub-directories, do the following:

wp-content/*
!wp-content/plugins/
!wp-content/themes/

Source: https://gist.github.com/444295

Titration

But what is about one file in subdirectory? ( dir1/ , !dir1/dir2/some_file ) – Kaminski

Answer 5

Just add ! before an exclusion rule.

According to the gitignore man page:

Patterns have the following format:

...

• An optional prefix ! which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will override lower precedence patterns sources.

Downpipe

Answer 6

For Nested Folders, I came up with a solution based on Matiss's answer.

Let's say I want to ignore everything in build/ directory (which is in /app). So I do:

build/*

However, if I want to exclude build/outputs/bundle/release subfolder, I need to play some hide and seek!

/app/build/*
!/app/build/outputs
/app/build/outputs/*
!/app/build/outputs/bundle
/app/build/outputs/bundle/*
!/app/build/outputs/bundle/release

Important Notes:

• All the paths should start with / and be relative to the .gitignore
• You have to do it one subfolder at a time. You can see in VS Code (for instance) what it includes and what not at every step.

Iaea

Answer 7

!foo.dll in .gitignore, or (every time!) git add -f foo.dll

Keystone

Answer 8

If you're working with Visual Studio and your .dll happens to be in a bin folder, then you'll need to add an exception for the particular bin folder itself, before you can add the exception for the .dll file. E.g.

!SourceCode/Solution/Project/bin
!SourceCode/Solution/Project/bin/My.dll

This is because the default Visual Studio .gitignore file includes an ignore pattern for [Bbin]/

This pattern is zapping all bin folders (and consequently their contents), which makes any attempt to include the contents redundant (since the folder itself is already ignored).

I was able to find why my file wasn't being excepted by running

git check-ignore -v -- SourceCode/Solution/Project/bin/My.dll

from a Git Bash window. This returned the [Bbin]/ pattern.

Extortionate

Answer 9

The solution depends on the relation between the git ignore rule and the exception rule:

1. Files/Files at the same level: use the @Skilldrick solution.
2. Folders/Subfolders: use the @Matiss Jurgelis solution.

3. Files/Files in different levels or Files/Subfolders: you can do this:

   *.suo
   *.user
   *.userosscache
   *.sln.docstates
   
   # ...
   
   # Exceptions for entire subfolders
   !SetupFiles/elasticsearch-5.0.0/**/*
   !SetupFiles/filebeat-5.0.0-windows-x86_64/**/*
   
   # Exceptions for files in different levels
   !SetupFiles/kibana-5.0.0-windows-x86/**/*.suo
   !SetupFiles/logstash-5.0.0/**/*.suo
   

Maker

Answer 10

This is how I do it, with a README.md file in each directory:

/data/*
!/data/README.md

!/data/input/
/data/input/*
!/data/input/README.md

!/data/output/
/data/output/*
!/data/output/README.md

Kibbutz

Answer 11

Since Git 2.7.0 Git will take exceptions into account. From the official release notes:

• Allow a later "!/abc/def" to override an earlier "/abc" that appears in the same .gitignore file to make it easier to express "everything in /abc directory is ignored, except for ...".

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/Documentation/RelNotes/2.7.0.txt

edit: apparently this doesn't work any more since Git 2.8.0

Rossetti

does this work for anyone? doesn't seem to work for me. – Neurasthenia

https://mcmap.net/q/81424/-did-git-change-the-quot-quot-prefix-behavior-at-gitignore/125507 this was removed – Demonetize

It's not working for me on version 2.25.1. Do you happen to know a way around it ? – Decerebrate

Answer 12

If you have a directory and want to ignore everything with the exception of some files (e.g. *.py files), you can do:

sub-dir/**/*.*
!sub-dir/**/*.py

Kibbutz

This should be higher up. Also, you can explicitly set the deapth (not sure why you would) like so "folder/*/*" and "!folder/*/file" – Daciadacie