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Git Ignore

Introduction​

When working with Git repositories, you'll often have files that you don't want to track or include in your version control system. These might include:

  • Build artifacts and compiled files
  • Personal IDE configuration files
  • Environment-specific configuration files
  • Large binary files
  • Dependency directories like node_modules or venv
  • Log files and temporary files

Git provides a powerful mechanism called .gitignore that allows you to specify patterns for files and directories that Git should ignore. This tutorial will walk you through how to set up and use .gitignore effectively in your projects.

What is a .gitignore File?​

A .gitignore file is a plain text file that tells Git which files or folders to ignore in a project. Each line in a .gitignore file specifies a pattern, and any file or directory that matches that pattern will be ignored by Git.

Creating a .gitignore File​

You can create a .gitignore file in the root directory of your repository using any text editor:

# Navigate to your repository
cd my-project

# Create a .gitignore file
touch .gitignore

# Open it in your preferred text editor
nano .gitignore

Basic .gitignore Syntax​

Let's look at the basic syntax rules for .gitignore files:

# This is a comment in .gitignore

# Ignore a specific file
filename.txt

# Ignore all files with a specific extension
*.log

# Ignore a specific directory
node_modules/

# Ignore all files in a directory but keep the directory
logs/*
!logs/.gitkeep

# Use negation to keep specific files
*.pdf
!important.pdf

Key Pattern Rules​

  • Lines starting with # are comments
  • * matches zero or more characters
  • ? matches exactly one character
  • [abc] matches any character inside the brackets
  • ** matches nested directories (e.g., logs/**/*.log matches all .log files in the logs directory and all its subdirectories)
  • Patterns ending with / specify a directory
  • Patterns starting with / match from the repository root
  • Patterns starting with ! negate a match (include a previously excluded file)

Common .gitignore Patterns​

Here are some commonly used patterns for different programming environments:

For Node.js Projects​

# Dependencies
node_modules/
npm-debug.log
yarn-error.log
yarn-debug.log
.pnpm-debug.log

# Environment variables
.env
.env.local
.env.development.local
.env.test.local
.env.production.local

# Build outputs
/dist
/build

For Python Projects​

# Byte-compiled files
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*$py.class

# Distribution / packaging
dist/
build/
*.egg-info/

# Virtual environments
venv/
env/
ENV/

# Jupyter Notebook
.ipynb_checkpoints

For Java Projects​

# Compiled class files
*.class

# Build directories
/target/
/bin/
/out/

# Package files
*.jar
*.war
*.ear

# Maven
target/

Practical Example: Setting Up .gitignore for a Web Project​

Let's walk through a practical example of setting up a .gitignore file for a full-stack web application that uses React for the frontend and Node.js for the backend.

  1. First, create a .gitignore file in your project root:
touch .gitignore
  1. Add appropriate patterns to ignore common files and directories:
# Dependencies
/node_modules
/client/node_modules
/server/node_modules

# Production builds
/build
/client/build
/dist

# Environment variables and secrets
.env
.env.local
.env.development.local
.env.test.local
.env.production.local

# Logs
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*
logs
*.log

# IDE specific files
.idea/
.vscode/
*.sublime-project
*.sublime-workspace

# Operating System Files
.DS_Store
.DS_Store?
._*
.Spotlight-V100
.Trashes
ehthumbs.db
Thumbs.db

# Test coverage
/coverage

Global .gitignore​

Sometimes, you may want to ignore certain files across all of your Git repositories. For example, you might want to ignore IDE configuration files or OS-specific files. Instead of adding these to every project's .gitignore, you can create a global .gitignore file:

# Create a global .gitignore file
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global

# Edit the global .gitignore file
nano ~/.gitignore_global

Add patterns for files you want to ignore globally:

# IDE files
.idea/
.vscode/
*.sublime-project
*.sublime-workspace

# OS files
.DS_Store
.DS_Store?
._*
.Spotlight-V100
.Trashes
ehthumbs.db
Thumbs.db

# Temporary files
*.swp
*.swo
*~

Checking Ignored Status​

To check if a file is being ignored by Git, use the git check-ignore command:

git check-ignore -v filename.txt

The output will show which pattern in which .gitignore file is causing the file to be ignored:

.gitignore:3:*.txt    filename.txt

Ignoring Already Tracked Files​

If you've already committed a file that you now want to ignore, you'll need to remove it from Git's tracking first:

# Remove the file from Git tracking but keep it locally
git rm --cached filename.txt

# Update .gitignore to include the file pattern
echo "filename.txt" >> .gitignore

# Commit these changes
git commit -m "Stop tracking filename.txt"

.gitignore Templates​

GitHub maintains a repository of .gitignore templates for various programming languages and frameworks. You can find them at github.com/github/gitignore and use them as a starting point for your projects.

Alternatively, you can use gitignore.io (now at toptal.com/developers/gitignore) to generate custom .gitignore files based on your project's languages and tools.

Visualizing .gitignore Flow​

Here's a diagram that illustrates how Git processes files with .gitignore rules:

Summary​

The .gitignore file is an essential tool for keeping your Git repositories clean and focused on the code and assets that matter. By properly configuring .gitignore, you can prevent unwanted files from being tracked, avoid committing sensitive information, and reduce repository bloat.

Key points to remember:

  • Create a .gitignore file in your repository root
  • Use patterns to specify which files and directories to ignore
  • You can have multiple .gitignore files in different directories
  • Set up a global .gitignore for system-specific files
  • Use templates from GitHub or gitignore.io as starting points
  • Remove already tracked files with git rm --cached before ignoring them

Exercises​

  1. Create a .gitignore file for a project in your preferred programming language.
  2. Set up a global .gitignore file for your system-specific files.
  3. Clone an existing repository, add appropriate .gitignore patterns, and verify which files are now ignored using git status.
  4. Experiment with nested .gitignore files to apply different ignore rules to different subdirectories in your project.
  5. Try using the negation pattern (!) to include a specific file that would otherwise be ignored by a broader pattern.

Additional Resources​

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