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e04170697a
The current documentation reads as if .gitignore files will be parsed in every parent directory, and not until they reach a repository boundary. This clarifies the current behaviour. As well, this corrects 'toplevel' to 'top-level', matching usage for 'top-level domain'. Signed-off-by: Andrew Berry <andrew@furrypaws.ca> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
241 lines
8.6 KiB
Text
241 lines
8.6 KiB
Text
gitignore(5)
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============
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NAME
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----
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gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
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SYNOPSIS
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--------
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$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
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DESCRIPTION
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-----------
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A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
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Git should ignore.
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Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES
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below for details.
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Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
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When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks
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`gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
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order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
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precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
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* Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
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them.
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* Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
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as the path, or in any parent directory (up to the top-level of the working
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tree), with patterns in the higher level files being overridden by those in
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lower level files down to the directory containing the file. These patterns
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match relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file. A project normally
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includes such `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
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files generated as part of the project build.
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* Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
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* Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
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variable `core.excludesFile`.
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Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
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be used.
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* Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
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other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want
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to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file.
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* Patterns which are
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specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared
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with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside
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the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into
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the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file.
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* Patterns which a user wants Git to
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ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by
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the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
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`core.excludesFile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`. Its default value is
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$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or
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empty, $HOME/.config/git/ignore is used instead.
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The underlying Git plumbing tools, such as
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'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read
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`gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
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files specified by command-line options. Higher-level Git
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tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
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use patterns from the sources specified above.
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PATTERN FORMAT
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--------------
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- A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
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for readability.
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- A line starting with # serves as a comment.
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Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first hash for patterns
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that begin with a hash.
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- Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash
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("`\`").
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- An optional prefix "`!`" which negates the pattern; any
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matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
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included again. It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent
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directory of that file is excluded. Git doesn't list excluded
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directories for performance reasons, so any patterns on contained
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files have no effect, no matter where they are defined.
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Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns
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that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`".
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- The slash '/' is used as the directory separator. Separators may
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occur at the beginning, middle or end of the `.gitignore` search pattern.
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- If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the
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pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the
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particular `.gitignore` file itself. Otherwise the pattern may also
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match at any level below the `.gitignore` level.
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- If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern
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will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both
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files and directories.
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- For example, a pattern `doc/frotz/` matches `doc/frotz` directory,
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but not `a/doc/frotz` directory; however `frotz/` matches `frotz`
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and `a/frotz` that is a directory (all paths are relative from
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the `.gitignore` file).
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- An asterisk "`*`" matches anything except a slash.
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The character "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`".
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The range notation, e.g. `[a-zA-Z]`, can be used to match
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one of the characters in a range. See fnmatch(3) and the
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FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed description.
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Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against
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full pathname may have special meaning:
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- A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all
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directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory
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"`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "`**/foo/bar`"
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matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly
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under directory "`foo`".
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- A trailing "`/**`" matches everything inside. For example,
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"`abc/**`" matches all files inside directory "`abc`", relative
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to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth.
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- A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
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matches zero or more directories. For example, "`a/**/b`"
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matches "`a/b`", "`a/x/b`", "`a/x/y/b`" and so on.
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- Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and
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will match according to the previous rules.
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CONFIGURATION
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-------------
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The optional configuration variable `core.excludesFile` indicates a path to a
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file containing patterns of file names to exclude, similar to
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`$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to
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those in `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
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NOTES
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-----
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The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files
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not tracked by Git remain untracked.
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To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use
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'git rm --cached'.
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Git does not follow symbolic links when accessing a `.gitignore` file in
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the working tree. This keeps behavior consistent when the file is
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accessed from the index or a tree versus from the filesystem.
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EXAMPLES
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--------
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- The pattern `hello.*` matches any file or folder
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whose name begins with `hello.`. If one wants to restrict
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this only to the directory and not in its subdirectories,
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one can prepend the pattern with a slash, i.e. `/hello.*`;
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the pattern now matches `hello.txt`, `hello.c` but not
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`a/hello.java`.
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- The pattern `foo/` will match a directory `foo` and
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paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file
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or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent with the
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way how pathspec works in general in Git)
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- The pattern `doc/frotz` and `/doc/frotz` have the same effect
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in any `.gitignore` file. In other words, a leading slash
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is not relevant if there is already a middle slash in
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the pattern.
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- The pattern "foo/*", matches "foo/test.json"
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(a regular file), "foo/bar" (a directory), but it does not match
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"foo/bar/hello.c" (a regular file), as the asterisk in the
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pattern does not match "bar/hello.c" which has a slash in it.
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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$ git status
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[...]
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# Untracked files:
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[...]
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# Documentation/foo.html
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# Documentation/gitignore.html
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# file.o
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# lib.a
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# src/internal.o
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[...]
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$ cat .git/info/exclude
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# ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
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*.[oa]
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$ cat Documentation/.gitignore
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# ignore generated html files,
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*.html
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# except foo.html which is maintained by hand
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!foo.html
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$ git status
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[...]
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# Untracked files:
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[...]
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# Documentation/foo.html
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[...]
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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Another example:
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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$ cat .gitignore
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vmlinux*
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$ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
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arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
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$ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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The second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring
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`arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
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Example to exclude everything except a specific directory `foo/bar`
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(note the `/*` - without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude
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everything within `foo/bar`):
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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$ cat .gitignore
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# exclude everything except directory foo/bar
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/*
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!/foo
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/foo/*
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!/foo/bar
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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SEE ALSO
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--------
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linkgit:git-rm[1],
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linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5],
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linkgit:git-check-ignore[1]
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GIT
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---
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Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
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