# gitignore

## NAME



           gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
    


## SYNOPSIS



           $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
    


## DESCRIPTION



           A **gitignore** file specifies intentionally untracked files that Git
           should ignore. Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see
           the NOTES below for details.
    
           Each line in a **gitignore** file specifies a pattern. When deciding
           whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks **gitignore** patterns
           from multiple sources, with the following order of precedence,
           from highest to lowest (within one level of precedence, the last
           matching pattern decides the outcome):
    
           •   Patterns read from the command line for those commands that
               support them.
    
           •   Patterns read from a **.gitignore** file in the same directory as
               the path, or in any parent directory (up to the top-level of
               the working tree), with patterns in the higher level files
               being overridden by those in lower level files down to the
               directory containing the file. These patterns match relative
               to the location of the **.gitignore** file. A project normally
               includes such **.gitignore** files in its repository, containing
               patterns for files generated as part of the project build.
    
           •   Patterns read from **$GIT_DIR/info/exclude**.
    
           •   Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
               variable **core.excludesFile**.
    
           Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is
           meant to be used.
    
           •   Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
               other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers
               will want to ignore) should go into a **.gitignore** file.
    
           •   Patterns which are specific to a particular repository but
               which do not need to be shared with other related repositories
               (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside the repository but are
               specific to one user’s workflow) should go into the
               **$GIT_DIR/info/exclude** file.
    
           •   Patterns which a user wants Git to ignore in all situations
               (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by the user’s
               editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
               **core.excludesFile** in the user’s **~/.gitconfig**. Its default
               value is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is
               either not set or empty, $HOME/.config/git/ignore is used
               instead.
    
           The underlying Git plumbing tools, such as _git ls-files_ and _git_
           _read-tree_ , read **gitignore** patterns specified by command-line
           options, or from files specified by command-line options.
           Higher-level Git tools, such as _git status_ and _git add_ , use
           patterns from the sources specified above.
    


## PATTERN FORMAT



           •   A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
               for readability.
    
           •   A line starting with # serves as a comment. Put a backslash
               ("**\** ") in front of the first hash for patterns that begin with
               a hash.
    
           •   Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with
               backslash ("**\** ").
    
           •   An optional prefix "!" which negates the pattern; any matching
               file excluded by a previous pattern will become included
               again. It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent
               directory of that file is excluded. Git doesn’t list excluded
               directories for performance reasons, so any patterns on
               contained files have no effect, no matter where they are
               defined. Put a backslash ("**\** ") in front of the first "!" for
               patterns that begin with a literal "!", for example,
               "**\**!important!.txt".
    
           •   The slash "**/** " is used as the directory separator. Separators
               may occur at the beginning, middle or end of the **.gitignore**
               search pattern.
    
           •   If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both)
               of the pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory
               level of the particular **.gitignore** file itself. Otherwise the
               pattern may also match at any level below the **.gitignore**
               level.
    
           •   If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the
               pattern will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can
               match both files and directories.
    
           •   For example, a pattern **doc/frotz/** matches **doc/frotz** directory,
               but not **a/doc/frotz** directory; however **frotz/** matches **frotz**
               and **a/frotz** that is a directory (all paths are relative from
               the **.gitignore** file).
    
           •   An asterisk "***** " matches anything except a slash. The character
               "?" matches any one character except "**/** ". The range notation,
               e.g. [**a-zA-Z**], can be used to match one of the characters in a
               range. See fnmatch(3) and the FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more
               detailed description.
    
           Two consecutive asterisks ("****** ") in patterns matched against full
           pathname may have special meaning:
    
           •   A leading "****** " followed by a slash means match in all
               directories. For example, "****/foo** " matches file or directory
               "**foo** " anywhere, the same as pattern "**foo** ". "****/foo/bar** "
               matches file or directory "**bar** " anywhere that is directly
               under directory "**foo** ".
    
           •   A trailing "**/**** " matches everything inside. For example,
               "**abc/**** " matches all files inside directory "**abc** ", relative to
               the location of the **.gitignore** file, with infinite depth.
    
           •   A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
               matches zero or more directories. For example, "**a/**/b** "
               matches "**a/b** ", "**a/x/b** ", "**a/x/y/b** " and so on.
    
           •   Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks
               and will match according to the previous rules.
    


## CONFIGURATION



           The optional configuration variable **core.excludesFile** indicates a
           path to a file containing patterns of file names to exclude,
           similar to **$GIT_DIR/info/exclude**. Patterns in the exclude file are
           used in addition to those in **$GIT_DIR/info/exclude**.
    


## NOTES



           The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not
           tracked by Git remain untracked.
    
           To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use _git rm_
           _--cached_ to remove the file from the index. The filename can then
           be added to the **.gitignore** file to stop the file from being
           reintroduced in later commits.
    
           Git does not follow symbolic links when accessing a **.gitignore**
           file in the working tree. This keeps behavior consistent when the
           file is accessed from the index or a tree versus from the
           filesystem.
    


## EXAMPLES



           •   The pattern **hello.*** matches any file or directory whose name
               begins with **hello.**. If one wants to restrict this only to the
               directory and not in its subdirectories, one can prepend the
               pattern with a slash, i.e.  **/hello.*** ; the pattern now matches
               **hello.txt** , **hello.c** but not **a/hello.java**.
    
           •   The pattern **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)
    
           •   The pattern **doc/frotz** and **/doc/frotz** have the same effect in
               any **.gitignore** file. In other words, a leading slash is not
               relevant if there is already a middle slash in the pattern.
    
           •   The pattern **foo/*** , matches **foo/test.json**(a regular file),
               **foo/bar**(a directory), but it does not match **foo/bar/hello.c**
               (a regular file), as the asterisk in the pattern does not
               match **bar/hello.c** which has a slash in it.
    
                   $ git status
                   [...]
                   # Untracked files:
                   [...]
                   #       Documentation/foo.html
                   #       Documentation/gitignore.html
                   #       file.o
                   #       lib.a
                   #       src/internal.o
                   [...]
                   $ cat .git/info/exclude
                   # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
                   *.[oa]
                   $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
                   # ignore generated html files,
                   *.html
                   # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
                   !foo.html
                   $ git status
                   [...]
                   # Untracked files:
                   [...]
                   #       Documentation/foo.html
                   [...]
    
           Another example:
    
                   $ cat .gitignore
                   vmlinux*
                   $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
                   arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
                   $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
    
           The second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring
           **arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S**.
    
           Example to exclude everything except a specific directory **foo/bar**
           (note the **/*** - without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude
           everything within **foo/bar**):
    
                   $ cat .gitignore
                   # exclude everything except directory foo/bar
                   /*
                   !/foo
                   /foo/*
                   !/foo/bar
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


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