Ignoring directories in Git repositories on Windows

windows git gitignore git-bash msysgit

1,483,784

Solution 1

Create a file named .gitignore in your project's directory. Ignore directories by entering the directory name into the file (with a slash appended):

dir_to_ignore/

More information is here.

Solution 2

By default, Windows Explorer will display .gitignore when in fact the file name is .gitignore.txt.

Git will not use .gitignore.txt

And you can't rename the file to .gitignore, because Windows Explorer thinks it's a file of type gitignore without a name.

Non command line solution:

You can rename a file to ".gitignore.", and it will create ".gitignore"

Solution 3

It seems that for ignoring files and directories there are two main ways:

.gitignore
- Placing .gitignore file into the root of your repository besides the .git folder (in Windows, make sure you see the true file extension and then make .gitignore. (with the point at the end to make an empty file extension))
- Making the global configuration ~/.gitignore_global and running git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global to add this to your Git configuration
Note: files tracked before can be untracked by running git rm --cached filename
Repository exclude - For local files that do not need to be shared, you just add the file pattern or directory to the file .git/info/exclude. Theses rules are not committed, so they are not seen by other users. More information is here.

To make exceptions in the list of ignored files, see this question.

Solution 4

To ignore an entire directory in Git, the easiest way is to include a .gitignore file within the target directory which simply contains "*".

An illustrative example,

Example System

/root/
    .gitignore
    /dirA/
        someFile1.txt
        someFile2.txt
    /dirB/
        .gitignore
        someFile3.txt
        someFile4.txt

Goal

ignore the contents of /dirB/

Top Level (/root/.gitignore)

This is where your standard gitignore info goes (e.g. a “~Untitled.docx”, some private dirs, etc.). “dirB/“ can certainly be placed here, if needed

Ignored Directory (/root/dirB/.gitignore)

Git watches for gitignore at every step of the file system so anytime you have ignore specifications to apply then toss it in, generating a new gitignore for that dir
dirB/.gitignore then just reads as “*” and all contents are ignored completely, itself and all files!

And it's that simple :)

Solution 5

To instruct Git to ignore certain files or folders, you have to create .gitignore file.

But in Windows Explorer you have to provide a name for the file. You just cannot create file with just an extension. The trick is that create a empty text file and go to command prompt and change the name of the file to .gitignore:

ren "New Text Document.txt" .gitignore

Now open the file with your favorite text editor and add the file/folder names you wish you ignore. You can also use wildcards like this: *.txt.

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1,483,784

Author by

sf.

Updated on August 03, 2022

Comments

sf. almost 2 years

How can I ignore directories or folders in Git using msysgit on Windows?
- Gareth almost 12 years
  
  Do you want the cache folder to be excluded from the repository completely, or just its contents?
- Mark Longair almost 12 years
  
  I'm guessing that the OP has multiple cache directories, whose contents should be ignored, but wants to make sure that those directories are created for anyone who clones the repository.
- eckes almost 12 years
  
  @Gareth: since empty folders aren't tracked with git, if the content is ignored, the folder also will be, won't it?
- Hailwood almost 12 years
  
  Exactly, hence the index.html files. that way the folders are not empty.
- Gareth almost 12 years
  
  I only mentioned that because some people use hidden files (commonly .gitkeep) to indicate a directory that should be kept
- Charlie Parker over 7 years
  
  is the / at the end what makes it know its a directory it should ignore?
Oliver almost 14 years

Or just: echo dir_to_ignore/ > .gitignore
Arrowmaster over 13 years

That works? I've always just told people to open notepad and in the Save As dialog type the filename surrounded by doublequotes, so for example ".gitignore" and it saves it without automatically adding an extension.
Joey Green about 13 years

In a windows cmd prompt you can either use 'edit .gitignore' or 'notepad .gitignore' to create the correct file.
Triynko over 12 years

Neat. Including a trailing period does work. Explorer strips off the last period, resulting in a file named ".gitignore". I think the quotes method is cleaner though and less likely to create surprises.
SGB over 12 years

Or you can also use 'touch .gitignore' from within the windows git bash command prompt and that will create the correctly named file which can then in turn be edited by notepad or the like...
P. Galbraith about 12 years

Or just create a file named .gitignore. with explorer and edit it with notepad (the trailing dot will be removed). That way you don't have to use command prompt.
MaurerPower almost 12 years

good job pointing out the git rm --cached <filename>. Absolutely critical for repos that existed BEFORE you created the .gitignore
andersop almost 12 years

Yes, git on windows is really finicky about .gitignore - the local exclude file does what I need though. Thanks!
Dave Everitt over 11 years

You probably do want to commit .gitignore especially as you're likely to want to track changes to it, and so is your team (if you're working with one). See stackoverflow.com/a/767213/123033
Mark Longair over 11 years

@Dave Everitt: That's exactly why i said "Obviously you do want to commit .gitignore as well".
MeatFlavourDev about 11 years

git rm --cached <filename> fixed the problem I was having with .gitignore :)
deed02392 almost 11 years

@P.Galbraith For me (Windows XP), I get an error trying to create a file with Explorer called .gitignore.: You must type a file name.
MollyCat almost 11 years

Or you could vim .gitignore from the terminal. :)
Potaito over 10 years

Yeah git rm --cached filename is absolutely crucial. It was driving me crazy as git was still staging files I clearly stated to be ignored (created gitignore after initial commit). Thank you very much!
Godsmith over 10 years

Or, which surprisingly has not been mentioned even though it is the fastest way, just type "echo folder_to_ignore>> .gitignore" in the console.
OsakaWebbie about 10 years

Or, in the Save As dialog, change the file type to "All Files (.)" - then Windows will not append any extension.
Rayjax almost 10 years

or in git bash just type "touch .gitignore" in your folder
Leon Gaban over 9 years

@Godsmith your solution worked! :D thanks, I tried adding my folder bower_components/ directly into the gitignore, but it still showed up
verystrongjoe about 9 years

even if i add the foder in .gitignore file, git is trying indexing the folder. how can I skip this? whenever I command git add index, it takes so long.
Castro Roy about 9 years

Or type nul > .gitignore to create an empty file
Vairis about 9 years

Or just call the file .gitignore. when the file extensions are not hidden in your Windows explorer
Jayant over 8 years

Solved my problem. Git was tracking vendor folder in my laravel repo even though I had added vendor folder in gitignore. Thanks alot.
Mr Rubix over 8 years

On windows 7 simply create a new text document named .gitignore. and it will become .gitignore
Obmerk Kronen about 8 years

".gitignore." - This is great trick ! I always had trouble with .htaccess as well...
Nitin... almost 8 years

This is the best answer, it also brings added benefits in project deployment and maintenance.
Oleksii Nezhyborets almost 8 years

This will recursively ignore all subfolders named dir_to_ignore, for example both root_dir/dir_to_ignore and root_dir/some_dir/dir_to_ignore would be ignored
Laura over 7 years

Double check the file encoding that results from "echo folder_to_ignore >> .gitignore" on a Windows machine. Make sure git doesn't treat it as a binary file.
Charlie Parker over 7 years

is the / at the end what makes it know its a directory it should ignore?
Shimmy Weitzhandler about 7 years

I like this approach, I just can't get along with the path in there, I want to ignore a folder in the main repo, how to?
Miss.Saturn about 7 years

Remember to run git reset folder/
leerssej about 6 years

or just add an extra . at the end so explorer stops thinking .gitignore is the extension. Then on entry that trailing dot with no extension just gets eaten and you are left with .gitignore TL;DR: try to name it .gitignore. => you end up with .gitignore
Putu De over 5 years

I am using Atom on Windows 10. It's working! Thanks dude!
Xedret over 5 years

I tried all the others with my current configuration and this was my ultimate definitive answer.
Peter Mortensen over 4 years

But aren't you supposed to leave files in .git alone (manipulate the content through official means)?
Peter Mortensen over 4 years

The link appears to be broken (it first redirects to the 'https' version): "Secure Connection Failed. An error occurred during a connection to archive.robwilkerson.org. PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR"
Paiman Roointan over 4 years

you can also use this command in cmd: copy con .gitignore then type your dir_to_ignore then press ctrl+z followed by Enter! (learned it when I was a child and my dad was learning DOS)
Vairis about 4 years

@Rayjax I think bash does not go to the group "non command line solutions" :)
Rayjax about 4 years

indeed- still useful to some apparently :)
skdhfgeq2134 almost 4 years

What is the standard gitignore info? Can you give an example? What do you mean when you say "the file just reads as * ", this doesn't make any sense? I don't think I understood anything from this answer and couldn't find it at all simple.
skdhfgeq2134 almost 4 years

Where should I add this expression?
skdhfgeq2134 almost 4 years

Is there a specific way we should add the files? Like I will just write the files separated by space and it will search the entire root folder for these files. Should I add the path of the files to this gitignore file? Where should I create this .gitignore file, in the root directory?
J-Dizzle almost 4 years

The file is one character, a single ‘*’. I will review and share further detail in a bit
mr_azad almost 4 years

Sometimes I have to run git rm --cached -r . to make the gitignore work properly....
D. Kermott over 3 years

my builds folder was being tracked. It must have been added to .gitignore after a build. Anyway, the command to untrack the folder is this: git rm --cached builds -r (where builds is the folder you want to untrack and -r is recursive meaning all files and sub-folders will be untracked)
Diego Favero over 3 years

I needed to also add /.gitgnore to also ignore the file .gitignore itself
itsfarseen over 3 years

I feel this is cleaner because it doesn't clutter your main .gitignore file
Frank Z. over 3 years

@skdhfgeq2134 in English, when you say "X reads as Y" it means "Y is written on/in X"
J-Dizzle over 3 years

Elaborate please - I am not sure what you are saying! Share more detail and I will update
James Mwase almost 3 years

For me it was node_modules so had to run git rm --cached node_modules -r
Matt Lemmon over 2 years

@skdhfgeq2134: In programming, the asterisk * is short for "all" or "everything." So in this case "*" means everything in the directory.
Matt Lemmon over 2 years

Why !.gitignore with an exclamation point? The docs say the ! symbol negates instructions. Simply including * and .gitignore should work. More related details: stackoverflow.com/questions/10176875/add-gitignore-to-gitign‌ore/10177000
Tarynn over 2 years

What would that line actually ignore?
Tarynn over 2 years

"Then just add information.." You brushed over a relatively important step there.
DINA TAKLIT over 2 years

frontend/node_modules folder; if u have backend and frontend for your app you can specify the ignore of node modules by typing the name of the front end folder /node_modules :)
gen over 2 years

fyi this no longer applies to latest windows versions - you can now create files with a leading period