8ff06de10c
We stopped allowing symlinks for .gitmodules files in10ecfa7649(verify_path: disallow symlinks in .gitmodules, 2018-05-04), and we stopped following symlinks for .gitattributes, .gitignore, and .mailmap in the commits from204333b015(Merge branch 'jk/open-dotgitx-with-nofollow', 2021-03-22). The reasons are discussed in detail there, but we never adjusted the documentation to let users know. This hasn't been a big deal since the point is that such setups were mildly broken and thought to be unusual anyway. But it certainly doesn't hurt to be clear and explicit about it. Suggested-by: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email> Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
243 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
243 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
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, with patterns in the
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higher level files (up to the toplevel of the work tree) being overridden
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by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file.
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These patterns match relative to the location of the
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`.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such
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`.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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