Can you have additional .gitignore per directory within a single repo?

Question

Can you create a .gitignore file in a directory that only applies to files (and directories) within that directory?

Solution 1

Yes, you can. Try it, it works fine. Put a .gitignore in the root of your repo, and put another .gitignore with additional things to ignore in a subdirectory.

Solution 2

Similar question was: Are multiple `.gitignore`s frowned on? (Jul 2010)

Or if you can have different version of a .gitignore file per branch: Using github to host public git repositories whilst ensuring that sensitive data files remain untracked (Feb 2010)

Further perhaps related: How do I tell git to always select my local version for conflicted merges on a specific file?

Solution 3

You can just specify files to ignore in a format such as

Xyz/*.abc

in the .gitignore in the root directory, potentially removing the need for separate ignore files.

Comments

[dsula]

Does the .gitignore in the subdirectory replace the root .gitignore? Or does it add to it?

[Mike Morearty]

@dsula the .gitignore in the subdirectory adds to the root .gitignore (does not just replace it).