6 gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
10 $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
15 A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
17 Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES
20 Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
21 When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks
22 `gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
23 order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
24 precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
26 * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
29 * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
30 as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the
31 higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden
32 by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
33 These patterns match relative to the location of the
34 `.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such
35 `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
36 files generated as part of the project build.
38 * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
40 * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
41 variable 'core.excludesfile'.
43 Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
46 * Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
47 other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want
48 to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file.
51 specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared
52 with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside
53 the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into
54 the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file.
56 * Patterns which a user wants Git to
57 ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by
58 the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
59 `core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`. Its default value is
60 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or
61 empty, $HOME/.config/git/ignore is used instead.
63 The underlying Git plumbing tools, such as
64 'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read
65 `gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
66 files specified by command-line options. Higher-level Git
67 tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
68 use patterns from the sources specified above.
73 - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
76 - A line starting with # serves as a comment.
77 Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first hash for patterns
78 that begin with a hash.
80 - Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backlash
83 - An optional prefix "`!`" which negates the pattern; any
84 matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
85 included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will
86 override lower precedence patterns sources.
87 Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns
88 that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`".
90 - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
91 purpose of the following description, but it would only find
92 a match with a directory. In other words, `foo/` will match a
93 directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a
94 regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent
95 with the way how pathspec works in general in Git).
97 - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', Git treats it as
98 a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
99 pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
100 (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
103 - Otherwise, Git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable
104 for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
105 wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
106 For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
107 "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
108 or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
110 - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
111 For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
112 "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
114 Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against
115 full pathname may have special meaning:
117 - A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all
118 directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory
119 "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "`**/foo/bar`"
120 matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly
121 under directory "`foo`".
123 - A trailing "`/**`" matches everything inside. For example,
124 "`abc/**`" matches all files inside directory "`abc`", relative
125 to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth.
127 - A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
128 matches zero or more directories. For example, "`a/**/b`"
129 matches "`a/b`", "`a/x/b`", "`a/x/y/b`" and so on.
131 - Other consecutive asterisks are considered invalid.
136 The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files
137 not tracked by Git remain untracked.
139 To ignore uncommitted changes in a file that is already tracked,
140 use 'git update-index {litdd}assume-unchanged'.
142 To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use
148 --------------------------------------------------------------
153 # Documentation/foo.html
154 # Documentation/gitignore.html
159 $ cat .git/info/exclude
160 # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
162 $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
163 # ignore generated html files,
165 # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
171 # Documentation/foo.html
173 --------------------------------------------------------------
177 --------------------------------------------------------------
180 $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
181 arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
182 $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
183 --------------------------------------------------------------
185 The second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring
186 `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
191 linkgit:git-update-index[1],
192 linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5],
193 linkgit:git-check-ignore[1]
197 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite