~ Contribute

Suggest a correction or improvement. The author reviews it before it goes live.

Comment0 / 300

en/tutorials/git/14gitignore

# Ignoring Files

Use `.gitignore` to prevent Git from tracking files you don't want committed, like dependencies, build output, or secrets.

## Creating a .gitignore

Create a `.gitignore` file in your repository root:

```gitignore
# Dependencies
node_modules/

# Build output
dist/
build/

# Environment variables
.env
.env.local

# Logs
*.log

# OS files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
```

Git reads this file and skips anything that matches these patterns.

## Pattern Syntax

- `node_modules/` — ignores the directory
- `*.log` — ignores all `.log` files
- `!important.log` — negation: track this file even though `*.log` is ignored
- `.env*` — glob: matches `.env`, `.env.local`, `.env.production`

## Directory vs File Patterns

Patterns ending with `/` match directories only. Without the trailing slash, Git matches both files and directories with that name.

```gitignore
logs/          # only matches directories named logs
logs           # matches both files and directories named logs
```

## Global Gitignore

Set a global ignore for files across all repos:

```bash
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global
```

Useful for OS-specific files (`.DS_Store`, `Thumbs.db`) without polluting each project.

## Removing Tracked Files

If you added a file to `.gitignore` after it was already tracked, you need to untrack it manually:

```bash
git rm --cached filename.txt
```

The file stays in your working directory but Git stops tracking it.

## Best Practices

- Add `.gitignore` before your first commit
- Commit your `.gitignore` so the team shares it
- Use a template for your tech stack (e.g., GitHub's gitignore templates)
- Check what's being tracked with `git status` regularly
- Review `.gitignore` periodically as projects evolve

## Common Mistakes

- Forgetting that `.gitignore` only prevents tracking new files — already tracked files must be untracked with `git rm --cached`
- Using absolute paths instead of relative patterns
- Putting sensitive files in `.gitignore` instead of keeping them out of the repo entirely
- Ignoring `.gitignore` itself (which is valid, but rare)
- Not adding `.env` early and accidentally committing secrets

No changes yet

cancel