# hgignore

## NAME



           hgignore - syntax for Mercurial ignore files
    


## SYNOPSIS



           The Mercurial system uses a file called **.hgignore** in the root
           directory of a repository to control its behavior when it searches
           for files that it is not currently tracking.
    


## DESCRIPTION



           The working directory of a Mercurial repository will often contain
           files that should not be tracked by Mercurial. These include
           backup files created by editors and build products created by
           compilers.  These files can be ignored by listing them in a
           **.hgignore** file in the root of the working directory. The **.hgignore**
           file must be created manually. It is typically put under version
           control, so that the settings will propagate to other repositories
           with push and pull.
    
           An untracked file is ignored if its path relative to the
           repository root directory, or any prefix path of that path, is
           matched against any pattern in **.hgignore**.
    
           For example, say we have an untracked file, **file.c** , at **a/b/file.c**
           inside our repository. Mercurial will ignore **file.c** if any pattern
           in **.hgignore** matches **a/b/file.c** , **a/b** or **a**.
    
           In addition, a Mercurial configuration file can reference a set of
           per-user or global ignore files. See the **ignore** configuration key
           on the **[ui]** section of **hg help config** for details of how to
           configure these files.
    
           To control Mercurial's handling of files that it manages, many
           commands support the **-I** and **-X** options; see **hg help <command> **and
           **hg help patterns** for details.
    
           Files that are already tracked are not affected by .hgignore, even
           if they appear in .hgignore. An untracked file X can be explicitly
           added with **hg add X** , even if X would be excluded by a pattern in
           .hgignore.
    


## SYNTAX



           An ignore file is a plain text file consisting of a list of
           patterns, with one pattern per line. Empty lines are skipped. The
           **#** character is treated as a comment character, and the **\** character
           is treated as an escape character.
    
           Mercurial supports several pattern syntaxes. The default syntax
           used is Python/Perl-style regular expressions.
    
           To change the syntax used, use a line of the following form:
    
           syntax: NAME
    
           where **NAME** is one of the following:
    
           **regexp**
    
                  Regular expression, Python/Perl syntax.
    
           **glob**
    
                  Shell-style glob.
    
           **rootglob**
    
                  A variant of **glob** that is rooted (see below).
    
           The chosen syntax stays in effect when parsing all patterns that
           follow, until another syntax is selected.
    
           Neither **glob** nor regexp patterns are rooted. A glob-syntax pattern
           of the form ***.c** will match a file ending in **.c** in any directory,
           and a regexp pattern of the form **\.c$** will do the same. To root a
           regexp pattern, start it with **^**. To get the same effect with
           glob-syntax, you have to use **rootglob**.
    
           Subdirectories can have their own .hgignore settings by adding
           **subinclude:path/to/subdir/.hgignore** to the root **.hgignore**. See **hg**
           **help patterns** for details on **subinclude:** and **include:**.
    
           Note   Patterns specified in other than **.hgignore** are always
                  rooted.  Please see **hg help patterns** for details.
    


## EXAMPLE



           Here is an example ignore file.
    
           # use glob syntax.
           syntax: glob
    
           *.elc
           *.pyc
           *~
    
           # switch to regexp syntax.
           syntax: regexp
           ^\.pc/
    


## DEBUGGING



           Use the **debugignore** command to see if and why a file is ignored,
           or to see the combined ignore pattern. See **hg help debugignore** for
           details.
    


## COPYING



           This manual page is copyright 2006 Vadim Gelfer.  Mercurial is
           copyright 2005-2022 Olivia Mackall.  Free use of this software is
           granted under the terms of the GNU General Public License version
           2 or any later version.
    


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