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. 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
  55 The underlying git plumbing tools, such as
  56 'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read
  57 `gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
  58 files specified by command-line options.  Higher-level git
  59 tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
  60 use patterns from the sources specified above.
  61
  62 PATTERN FORMAT
  63 --------------
  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
  72    included again.  If a negated pattern matches, this will
  73    override lower precedence patterns sources.
  74
  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
  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
  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).
  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.
  91    For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
  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.
  96    For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
  97    "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
  98
  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
 111 EXAMPLES
 112 --------
 113
 114 --------------------------------------------------------------
 115     $ git status
 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
 133     $ git status
 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
 154 SEE ALSO
 155 --------
 156 linkgit:git-rm[1], linkgit:git-update-index[1],
 157 linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]
 158
 159 Documentation
 160 -------------
 161 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett,
 162 Frank Lichtenheld, and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 163
 164 GIT
 165 ---
 166 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite