Tribily/puppet-apache — comment on commit 8627da5aaa191276e523cb0a411faae16105246a
File:  line 0
By twpayne:

You can force adding files, e.g.
git add -f .project
So, a good option for you could be:
1. Add .project to your global .gitignore
2. Force add .project to projects that need it

Note that .gitignore only affects git add. Once git is tracking a file, it does not matter whether it's in your .gitignore or not - git will track it until you remove it. Therefore, you can safely add .project to your global config and it won't affect your existing projects.