Documentation/gitignore.txt

   1 gitignore(5)
   2 ============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
  11
  12 DESCRIPTION
  13 -----------
  14
  15 A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
  16 Git should ignore.
  17 Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES
  18 below for details.
  19
  20 Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
  21 When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks
  22 `gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
  23 order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
  24 precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
  25
  26  * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
  27    them.
  28
  29  * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
  30    as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the
  31    higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden
  32    by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
  33    These patterns match relative to the location of the
  34    `.gitignore` file.  A project normally includes such
  35    `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
  36    files generated as part of the project build.
  37
  38  * Patterns read from `$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  - Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash
  81    ("`\`").
  82
  83  - An optional prefix "`!`" which negates the pattern; any
  84    matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
  85    included again. It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent
  86    directory of that file is excluded. Git doesn't list excluded
  87    directories for performance reasons, so any patterns on contained
  88    files have no effect, no matter where they are defined.
  89    Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns
  90    that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`".
  91
  92  - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
  93    purpose of the following description, but it would only find
  94    a match with a directory.  In other words, `foo/` will match a
  95    directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a
  96    regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent
  97    with the way how pathspec works in general in Git).
  98
  99  - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', Git treats it as
 100    a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
 101    pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
 102    (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
 103    `.gitignore` file).
 104
 105  - Otherwise, Git treats the pattern as a shell glob: "`*`" matches
 106    anything except "`/`", "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`"
 107    and "`[]`" matches one character in a selected range. See
 108    fnmatch(3) and the FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed
 109    description.
 110
 111  - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
 112    For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
 113    "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
 114
 115 Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against
 116 full pathname may have special meaning:
 117
 118  - A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all
 119    directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory
 120    "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "`**/foo/bar`"
 121    matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly
 122    under directory "`foo`".
 123
 124  - A trailing "`/**`" matches everything inside. For example,
 125    "`abc/**`" matches all files inside directory "`abc`", relative
 126    to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth.
 127
 128  - A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
 129    matches zero or more directories. For example, "`a/**/b`"
 130    matches "`a/b`", "`a/x/b`", "`a/x/y/b`" and so on.
 131
 132  - Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and
 133    will match according to the previous rules.
 134
 135 NOTES
 136 -----
 137
 138 The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files
 139 not tracked by Git remain untracked.
 140
 141 To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use
 142 'git rm --cached'.
 143
 144 EXAMPLES
 145 --------
 146
 147 --------------------------------------------------------------
 148     $ git status
 149     [...]
 150     # Untracked files:
 151     [...]
 152     #       Documentation/foo.html
 153     #       Documentation/gitignore.html
 154     #       file.o
 155     #       lib.a
 156     #       src/internal.o
 157     [...]
 158     $ cat .git/info/exclude
 159     # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
 160     *.[oa]
 161     $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
 162     # ignore generated html files,
 163     *.html
 164     # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
 165     !foo.html
 166     $ git status
 167     [...]
 168     # Untracked files:
 169     [...]
 170     #       Documentation/foo.html
 171     [...]
 172 --------------------------------------------------------------
 173
 174 Another example:
 175
 176 --------------------------------------------------------------
 177     $ cat .gitignore
 178     vmlinux*
 179     $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
 180     arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
 181     $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
 182 --------------------------------------------------------------
 183
 184 The second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring
 185 `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
 186
 187 Example to exclude everything except a specific directory `foo/bar`
 188 (note the `/*` - without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude
 189 everything within `foo/bar`):
 190
 191 --------------------------------------------------------------
 192     $ cat .gitignore
 193     # exclude everything except directory foo/bar
 194     /*
 195     !/foo
 196     /foo/*
 197     !/foo/bar
 198 --------------------------------------------------------------
 199
 200 SEE ALSO
 201 --------
 202 linkgit:git-rm[1],
 203 linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5],
 204 linkgit:git-check-ignore[1]
 205
 206 GIT
 207 ---
 208 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite