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cedb8d5d JT |
1 | gitignore(5) |
2 | ============ | |
3 | ||
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
6 | gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore | |
7 | ||
8 | SYNOPSIS | |
9 | -------- | |
10 | $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore | |
11 | ||
12 | DESCRIPTION | |
13 | ----------- | |
14 | ||
15 | A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that | |
6259ac66 | 16 | git should ignore. |
6f02a5a3 JN |
17 | Files already tracked by git are not affected; see the NOTES |
18 | below for details. | |
cedb8d5d | 19 | |
6259ac66 | 20 | Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern. |
cedb8d5d JT |
21 | When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks |
22 | `gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following | |
98ec4ad7 DK |
23 | order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of |
24 | precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome): | |
cedb8d5d | 25 | |
98ec4ad7 DK |
26 | * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support |
27 | them. | |
cedb8d5d JT |
28 | |
29 | * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory | |
98ec4ad7 | 30 | as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the |
20ff3ec2 JM |
31 | higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden |
32 | by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file. | |
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33 | These patterns match relative to the location of the |
34 | `.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such | |
35 | `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for | |
36 | files generated as part of the project build. | |
37 | ||
98ec4ad7 DK |
38 | * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. |
39 | ||
40 | * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration | |
41 | variable 'core.excludesfile'. | |
42 | ||
90b22907 JK |
43 | Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to |
44 | be used. Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to | |
45 | other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want | |
46 | to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file. Patterns which are | |
47 | specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared | |
48 | with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside | |
49 | the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into | |
50 | the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file. Patterns which a user wants git to | |
51 | ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by | |
52 | the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by | |
53 | `core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`. | |
54 | ||
cedb8d5d | 55 | The underlying git plumbing tools, such as |
0b444cdb | 56 | 'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read |
cedb8d5d JT |
57 | `gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from |
58 | files specified by command-line options. Higher-level git | |
0b444cdb | 59 | tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add', |
cedb8d5d JT |
60 | use patterns from the sources specified above. |
61 | ||
0b803a6c JN |
62 | PATTERN FORMAT |
63 | -------------- | |
cedb8d5d JT |
64 | |
65 | - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator | |
66 | for readability. | |
67 | ||
68 | - A line starting with # serves as a comment. | |
69 | ||
70 | - An optional prefix '!' which negates the pattern; any | |
71 | matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become | |
98ec4ad7 DK |
72 | included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will |
73 | override lower precedence patterns sources. | |
cedb8d5d | 74 | |
d6b8fc30 JH |
75 | - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the |
76 | purpose of the following description, but it would only find | |
77 | a match with a directory. In other words, `foo/` will match a | |
78 | directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a | |
79 | regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent | |
80 | with the way how pathspec works in general in git). | |
81 | ||
cedb8d5d JT |
82 | - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as |
83 | a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the | |
81c13fde JN |
84 | pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file |
85 | (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a | |
86 | `.gitignore` file). | |
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87 | |
88 | - Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable | |
89 | for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag: | |
90 | wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname. | |
9257a1ef | 91 | For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches |
81c13fde JN |
92 | "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html" |
93 | or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html". | |
94 | ||
95 | - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname. | |
9257a1ef | 96 | For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not |
81c13fde | 97 | "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c". |
cedb8d5d | 98 | |
6f02a5a3 JN |
99 | NOTES |
100 | ----- | |
101 | ||
102 | The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files | |
103 | not tracked by git remain untracked. | |
104 | ||
105 | To ignore uncommitted changes in a file that is already tracked, | |
106 | use 'git update-index {litdd}assume-unchanged'. | |
107 | ||
108 | To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use | |
109 | 'git rm --cached'. | |
110 | ||
0b803a6c JN |
111 | EXAMPLES |
112 | -------- | |
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113 | |
114 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 115 | $ git status |
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116 | [...] |
117 | # Untracked files: | |
118 | [...] | |
119 | # Documentation/foo.html | |
120 | # Documentation/gitignore.html | |
121 | # file.o | |
122 | # lib.a | |
123 | # src/internal.o | |
124 | [...] | |
125 | $ cat .git/info/exclude | |
126 | # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree. | |
127 | *.[oa] | |
128 | $ cat Documentation/.gitignore | |
129 | # ignore generated html files, | |
130 | *.html | |
131 | # except foo.html which is maintained by hand | |
132 | !foo.html | |
b1889c36 | 133 | $ git status |
cedb8d5d JT |
134 | [...] |
135 | # Untracked files: | |
136 | [...] | |
137 | # Documentation/foo.html | |
138 | [...] | |
139 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
140 | ||
141 | Another example: | |
142 | ||
143 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
144 | $ cat .gitignore | |
145 | vmlinux* | |
146 | $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm* | |
147 | arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S | |
148 | $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore | |
149 | -------------------------------------------------------------- | |
150 | ||
151 | The second .gitignore prevents git from ignoring | |
152 | `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`. | |
153 | ||
6f02a5a3 JN |
154 | SEE ALSO |
155 | -------- | |
156 | linkgit:git-rm[1], linkgit:git-update-index[1], | |
157 | linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5] | |
158 | ||
cedb8d5d JT |
159 | GIT |
160 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 161 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |