How to make Git automatically ignore certain files when I'm staging changes?

Question

I have a folder in my Git directory that stores information about when my program runs and I don't want this information to keep getting added to the repo.

Currently I just avoid selecting files from this folder in the git gui. This can be very cumbersome however as there are often a lot of them. What is the best way to do this either using the gui or the command line?

You can read more about [gitignore at the docs](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/gitignore.html). — , Jul 14 '13 at 17:57

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 14 '13 at 11:24

6

Use the .gitignore file, note that you might have to exclude files with

 git rm --cached filename

from tracking, which were put there before you added the rule for them, see https://help.github.com/articles/ignoring-files

answered Jul 14 '13 at 11:24

mvw

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 14 '13 at 11:22

2

Put the path to that directory into the .gitignore file, like this:

echo 'ignored-files/' >>.gitignore

Put the .gitignore file under version control if other developers might want to ignore those files as well.

answered Jul 14 '13 at 11:22

Alberto Zaccagni

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How to make Git automatically ignore certain files when I'm staging changes?

2 Answers2