6 gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
10 $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
15 A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
17 Note that all the `gitignore` files really concern only files
18 that are not already tracked by git;
19 in order to ignore uncommitted changes in already tracked files,
20 please refer to the 'git update-index --assume-unchanged'
23 Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
24 When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks
25 `gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
26 order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
27 precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
29 * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
32 * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
33 as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the
34 higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden
35 by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
36 These patterns match relative to the location of the
37 `.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such
38 `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
39 files generated as part of the project build.
41 * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
43 * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
44 variable 'core.excludesfile'.
46 Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
47 be used. Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
48 other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want
49 to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file. Patterns which are
50 specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared
51 with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside
52 the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into
53 the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file. Patterns which a user wants git to
54 ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by
55 the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
56 `core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`.
58 The underlying git plumbing tools, such as
59 'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read
60 `gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
61 files specified by command-line options. Higher-level git
62 tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
63 use patterns from the sources specified above.
65 Patterns have the following format:
67 - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
70 - A line starting with # serves as a comment.
71 Use `\#` for a literal # character starting filename.
73 - An optional prefix '!' which negates the pattern; any
74 matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
75 included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will
76 override lower precedence patterns sources.
78 - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
79 purpose of the following description, but it would only find
80 a match with a directory. In other words, `foo/` will match a
81 directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a
82 regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent
83 with the way how pathspec works in general in git).
85 - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
86 a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
87 pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
88 (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
91 - Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable
92 for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
93 wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
94 For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
95 "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
96 or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
98 - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
99 For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
100 "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
102 - You can escape special characters using backslash.
103 For example, "{backslash}#*" matches files beginning in `#`
104 (otherwise it would be considered comment),
105 and "{backslash}!*{backslash}?" matches files starting with `!`
106 (negate pattern prefix) and ending with `?` (glob wildcard).
110 --------------------------------------------------------------
115 # Documentation/foo.html
116 # Documentation/gitignore.html
121 $ cat .git/info/exclude
122 # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
124 $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
125 # ignore generated html files,
127 # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
133 # Documentation/foo.html
135 --------------------------------------------------------------
139 --------------------------------------------------------------
142 $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
143 arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
144 $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
145 --------------------------------------------------------------
147 The second .gitignore prevents git from ignoring
148 `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
152 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett,
153 Frank Lichtenheld, and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
157 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite