.gitignore doesn't stop changes being tracked in files

Question

Changes I make to a file that's within my .gitignore are being tracked by git.

File structure:

.gitignore
wp-config.php

Contents of .gitignore:

wp-config.php

When I change wp-config.php, and then run git status I see that it has been modified:

alex$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   modified:   wp-config.php
#

How to I stop tracking this file? I thought putting it in .gitignore would be enough.

Solution

With .gitignore, only untracked files are ignored.

Once the file has been added, change to that file are not ignored.

In this case, you should use assume-unchanged or skip-worktree instead.

git update-index --assume-unchanged -- wp-config.php

or

git update-index --skip-worktree -- wp-config.php

Comments

[Naveenbos]

what about the other files, do i need to add all other files and folder like this? instead of adding git ignore?