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This tutorial will discuss adding file entries to files in Git .gitignore.

.gitignoreAdd a file entry to a file in Git

Git tracks changes to all files in the project directory of the Git repository. We may want to disable tracking of specific files in the Git repository.

Typically, files that we wish to ignore from tracing are those created as part of the build process, temporary files, or system-generated files.

Some common file types that are often ignored when tracking in Git repositories are as follows:

• Code files created during compilation, such as .o, , .pycor .class;
• The output directory of the build, for example /bin, /outor /target;
• Runtime generated files, such as .log, , .lockor .tmp;
• Hidden system files such as .DS_Storeor Thumbs.db;
• Configuration files for personal IDEs, for example .idea/workspace.xml;
• Editor temporary files, such as .swpor .swo(generated by the Vim editor);
• Package files or compressed files, such as .jar, .war, .nar, .zip, .tar, .gzor .rar.

We can use Git's .gitignorefile feature to ignore tracking of a file. It is a special file that is usually checked in at the root of the project directory in the Git repository.

There is no special command to trigger the ignore process. Whenever we have new files that we wish to ignore, we need to update .gitignorethe ./install/ignore/file and commit it to the repository.

We need to add patterns in the file that match the file names in the Git repository .gitignoreto decide whether to add or ignore them.

Following are .gitignorethe wildcard patterns used to match file names.

• .logIgnore .loglog files with extensions in directories, e.g. debug.log, .log, logs/debug.log
• /binIgnore binFolder
• .classIgnore compiled class files
• .tmpIgnore tmp(temporary) files
• logslogsIgnore the contents of files and directories named .

By convention, we can place .gitignorefiles in the top-level directory of the repository. We can also add multiple files in subdirectories .gitignore.

.gitignorePatterns in a particular file are tested relative to the directory containing the file.

See .gitignorean excerpt from the example file below.

$ cat .gitignore
# ignore the bin folders
**/bin/

# Compiled class file
*.class

# Log file
*.log

# tmp files
*.tmp

# Vim temp files
*.swp
*.swo
...

Add a #comment to the file.

We can also add personal ignore patterns in local system repository. We need to add them to git/info/excludea specific file in the location in local system.

This is not version controlled, nor is it committed and distributed with our repository.

We can also define global Git ignore patterns for all repositories present in the local system. We need to set Git global properties core.excludesFile.

So, for example, we can add the global ./opt/opt/ssl.sh file in our home directory .gitignoreand git configconfigure its location using the ./opt/ssl.sh command as shown below.

$ touch ~/.gitignore
$ git config --global core.excludesFile ~/.gitignore

We have learned how to add file entries to .gitignorefiles in Git.