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1 | gitignore(5) |
2 | ============ | |
3 | ||
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
6 | gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore | |
7 | ||
8 | SYNOPSIS | |
9 | -------- | |
10 | $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore | |
11 | ||
12 | DESCRIPTION | |
13 | ----------- | |
14 | ||
15 | A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that | |
16 | git should ignore. Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a | |
17 | pattern. | |
18 | ||
19 | When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks | |
20 | `gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following | |
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21 | order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of |
22 | precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome): | |
cedb8d5d | 23 | |
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24 | * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support |
25 | them. | |
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26 | |
27 | * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory | |
98ec4ad7 | 28 | as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the |
b0674392 | 29 | higher level files (up to the root) being overridden by those in |
98ec4ad7 | 30 | lower level files down to the directory containing the file. |
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31 | These patterns match relative to the location of the |
32 | `.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such | |
33 | `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for | |
34 | files generated as part of the project build. | |
35 | ||
98ec4ad7 DK |
36 | * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. |
37 | ||
38 | * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration | |
39 | variable 'core.excludesfile'. | |
40 | ||
90b22907 JK |
41 | Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to |
42 | be used. Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to | |
43 | other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want | |
44 | to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file. Patterns which are | |
45 | specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared | |
46 | with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside | |
47 | the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into | |
48 | the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file. Patterns which a user wants git to | |
49 | ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by | |
50 | the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by | |
51 | `core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`. | |
52 | ||
cedb8d5d | 53 | The underlying git plumbing tools, such as |
5162e697 | 54 | linkgit:git-ls-files[1] and linkgit:git-read-tree[1], read |
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55 | `gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from |
56 | files specified by command-line options. Higher-level git | |
5162e697 | 57 | tools, such as linkgit:git-status[1] and linkgit:git-add[1], |
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58 | use patterns from the sources specified above. |
59 | ||
60 | Patterns have the following format: | |
61 | ||
62 | - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator | |
63 | for readability. | |
64 | ||
65 | - A line starting with # serves as a comment. | |
66 | ||
67 | - An optional prefix '!' which negates the pattern; any | |
68 | matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become | |
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69 | included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will |
70 | override lower precedence patterns sources. | |
cedb8d5d | 71 | |
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72 | - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the |
73 | purpose of the following description, but it would only find | |
74 | a match with a directory. In other words, `foo/` will match a | |
75 | directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a | |
76 | regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent | |
77 | with the way how pathspec works in general in git). | |
78 | ||
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79 | - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as |
80 | a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the | |
81 | pathname without leading directories. | |
82 | ||
83 | - Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable | |
84 | for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag: | |
85 | wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname. | |
86 | For example, "Documentation/\*.html" matches | |
87 | "Documentation/git.html" but not | |
88 | "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html". A leading slash matches the | |
89 | beginning of the pathname; for example, "/*.c" matches | |
90 | "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c". | |
91 | ||
92 | An example: | |
93 | ||
94 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 95 | $ git status |
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96 | [...] |
97 | # Untracked files: | |
98 | [...] | |
99 | # Documentation/foo.html | |
100 | # Documentation/gitignore.html | |
101 | # file.o | |
102 | # lib.a | |
103 | # src/internal.o | |
104 | [...] | |
105 | $ cat .git/info/exclude | |
106 | # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree. | |
107 | *.[oa] | |
108 | $ cat Documentation/.gitignore | |
109 | # ignore generated html files, | |
110 | *.html | |
111 | # except foo.html which is maintained by hand | |
112 | !foo.html | |
b1889c36 | 113 | $ git status |
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114 | [...] |
115 | # Untracked files: | |
116 | [...] | |
117 | # Documentation/foo.html | |
118 | [...] | |
119 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
120 | ||
121 | Another example: | |
122 | ||
123 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
124 | $ cat .gitignore | |
125 | vmlinux* | |
126 | $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm* | |
127 | arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S | |
128 | $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore | |
129 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
130 | ||
131 | The second .gitignore prevents git from ignoring | |
132 | `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`. | |
133 | ||
134 | Documentation | |
135 | ------------- | |
136 | Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett, | |
137 | Frank Lichtenheld, and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. | |
138 | ||
139 | GIT | |
140 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 141 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |