overview

gitignore files specify intentional untracked files that Git should ignore.

order of precedence

1. Patterns from the command line
2. Patterns from .gitignore file in same directory
3. Patterns from .gitignore file in parent directories up to the top level of the working tree
4. Patterns from $GIT_DIR/info/exclude
5. Patterns from the file specified by core.excludesFile

pattern format

• # for comments

• \ for escapes

• / as the directory separator char

  • / at the end of a pattern matches directories only

• ! to negate the pattern; any matching file excluded by the previous pattern will be included again

  • Unless the parent directory of that file is excluded

• * matches anything except /

• ** followed by / means match all directories:

  • **/foo matches a file or directory named foo anywhere (the saame as the pattern foo)
  • **/foo/bar matches file or directory bar anywhere directly under directory foo
  • a/**/b matches a/b, a/x/b, a/x/y/b, and so on.

• ? matches any one character except /

  • Range notation [a-zA-Z] can be used to match one of the characters in the range

• Trailing spaces are ignored (unless escaped)

ignoring files

If the file is currently tracked:

1. git rm <glob> --cached to remove the file from the index
2. Add the pattern to .gitignore