Man page - git-ignore(1)

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Manual

GIT-IGNORE(1) Git Extras GIT-IGNORE(1)

git-ignore - Add .gitignore patterns

git-ignore [<context>] [<pattern> [<pattern>]...]

Adds the given _pattern_s to a .gitignore file if it doesn't already exist.

<context>

-l, --local

Sets the context to the .gitignore file in the current working directory. (default)

-g, --global

Sets the context to the global gitignore file for the current user.

-p, --private

Sets the context to the private exclude file for the repository (.git/info/exclude).

<pattern>

A space delimited list of patterns to append to the file in context.

Pattern format as described in the git manual

  • A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for readability. To append a blank line use empty quotes "".
  • A line starting with # serves as a comment. For example, "# This is a comment"
  • 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. To use an exclamation ! as command line argument it is best placed between single quotes ''. For example, '!src'
  • If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the purpose of the following description, but it would only find a match with a directory. In other words, foo/ will match a directory foo and paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general in git).
  • If the pattern does not contain a slash /, git treats it as a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname relative to the location of the .gitignore file (relative to the top level of the work tree if not from a .gitignore file).
  • Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag: wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname. For example, "Documentation/*.html" matches "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html" or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
  • A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname. For example, "/*.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".

All arguments are optional so calling git-ignore alone will display first the global then the local gitignore files:

$ git ignore
Global gitignore: /home/alice/.gitignore
# Numerous always-ignore extensions
*.diff
*.err
*.orig
*.rej
*.swo
*.swp
*.vi
*~
*.sass-cache
# OS or Editor folders
.DS_Store
.Trashes
._*
Thumbs.db
---------------------------------
Local gitignore: .gitignore
.cache
.project
.settings
.tmproj
nbproject

If you only want to see the global context use the --global argument (for local use --local):

$ git ignore
Global gitignore: /home/alice/.gitignore
.DS_Store
.Trashes
._*
Thumbs.db

To quickly append a new pattern to the default/local context simply:

$ git ignore *.log
Adding pattern(s) to: .gitignore
... adding '*.log'

You can now configure any patterns without ever using an editor, with a context and pattern arguments: The resulting configuration is also returned for your convenience.

$ git ignore --local "" "# Temporary files" *.tmp "*.log" tmp/*  "" "# Files I'd like to keep" '!work'  ""
Adding pattern(s) to: .gitignore
... adding ''
... adding '# Temporary files'
... adding 'index.tmp'
... adding '*.log'
... adding 'tmp/*'
... adding ''
... adding '# Files I'd like to keep'
... adding '!work'
... adding ''
Local gitignore: .gitignore
# Temporary files
index.tmp
*.log
# Files I'd like to keep
!work

Written by Tj Holowaychuk <tj@vision-media.ca> and Tema Bolshakov <tweekane@gmail.com> and Nick Lombard <github@jigsoft.co.za>

<https://github.com/tj/git-extras/issues>

<https://github.com/tj/git-extras>

October 2024