Documentation/gitignore.txt

   1 gitignore(5)
   2 ============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
  11
  12 DESCRIPTION
  13 -----------
  14
  15 A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
  16 Git should ignore.
  17 Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES
  18 below for details.
  19
  20 Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
  21 When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks
  22 `gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
  23 order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
  24 precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
  25
  26  * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
  27    them.
  28
  29  * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
  30    as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the
  31    higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden
  32    by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
  33    These patterns match relative to the location of the
  34    `.gitignore` file.  A project normally includes such
  35    `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
  36    files generated as part of the project build.
  37
  38  * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
  39
  40  * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
  41    variable 'core.excludesfile'.
  42
  43 Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
  44 be used.
  45
  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.
  49
  50  * Patterns which are
  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.
  55
  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.
  62
  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.
  69
  70 PATTERN FORMAT
  71 --------------
  72
  73  - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
  74    for readability.
  75
  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.
  79
  80  - An optional prefix "`!`" which negates the pattern; any
  81    matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
  82    included again.  If a negated pattern matches, this will
  83    override lower precedence patterns sources.
  84    Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns
  85    that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`".
  86
  87  - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
  88    purpose of the following description, but it would only find
  89    a match with a directory.  In other words, `foo/` will match a
  90    directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a
  91    regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent
  92    with the way how pathspec works in general in Git).
  93
  94  - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', Git treats it as
  95    a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
  96    pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
  97    (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
  98    `.gitignore` file).
  99
 100  - Otherwise, Git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable
 101    for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
 102    wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
 103    For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
 104    "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
 105    or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
 106
 107  - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
 108    For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
 109    "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
 110
 111 Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against
 112 full pathname may have special meaning:
 113
 114  - A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all
 115    directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory
 116    "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "**/foo/bar"
 117    matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly
 118    under directory "`foo`".
 119
 120  - A trailing "/**" matches everything inside. For example,
 121    "abc/**" matches all files inside directory "abc", relative
 122    to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth.
 123
 124  - A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
 125    matches zero or more directories. For example, "`a/**/b`"
 126    matches "`a/b`", "`a/x/b`", "`a/x/y/b`" and so on.
 127
 128  - Other consecutive asterisks are considered invalid.
 129
 130 NOTES
 131 -----
 132
 133 The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files
 134 not tracked by Git remain untracked.
 135
 136 To ignore uncommitted changes in a file that is already tracked,
 137 use 'git update-index {litdd}assume-unchanged'.
 138
 139 To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use
 140 'git rm --cached'.
 141
 142 EXAMPLES
 143 --------
 144
 145 --------------------------------------------------------------
 146     $ git status
 147     [...]
 148     # Untracked files:
 149     [...]
 150     #       Documentation/foo.html
 151     #       Documentation/gitignore.html
 152     #       file.o
 153     #       lib.a
 154     #       src/internal.o
 155     [...]
 156     $ cat .git/info/exclude
 157     # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
 158     *.[oa]
 159     $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
 160     # ignore generated html files,
 161     *.html
 162     # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
 163     !foo.html
 164     $ git status
 165     [...]
 166     # Untracked files:
 167     [...]
 168     #       Documentation/foo.html
 169     [...]
 170 --------------------------------------------------------------
 171
 172 Another example:
 173
 174 --------------------------------------------------------------
 175     $ cat .gitignore
 176     vmlinux*
 177     $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
 178     arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
 179     $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
 180 --------------------------------------------------------------
 181
 182 The second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring
 183 `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
 184
 185 SEE ALSO
 186 --------
 187 linkgit:git-rm[1], linkgit:git-update-index[1],
 188 linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]
 189
 190 GIT
 191 ---
 192 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite