git-ignore (1) Linux Manual Page
git-ignore – Add .gitignore patterns
Synopsis
git-ignore [<context>] [<pattern> [<pattern>]…]Description
Adds the given _pattern_s to a .gitignore file if it doesn’t already exist.Options
<context>-l, –local
Sets the context to the .gitignore file in the current working directory. (default)
-g, –global
Sets the context to the global gitignore file for the current user.
<pattern>
A space delimited list of patterns to append to the file in context.
Pattern Format
Pattern format as described in the git manual- •
- A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for readability. To append a blank line use empty quotes "".
- •
- A line starting with # serves as a comment. For example, "# This is a comment"
- •
- An optional prefix ! which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will override lower precedence patterns sources. To use an exclamation ! as command line argument it is best placed between single quotes ”. For example, ‘!src’
- •
- If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the purpose of the following description, but it would only find a match with a directory. In other words, foo/ will match a directory foo and paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general in git).
- •
- If the pattern does not contain a slash /, git treats it as a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname relative to the location of the .gitignore file (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a .gitignore file).
- •
- Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag: wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname. For example, "Documentation/*.html" matches "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html" or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
- •
- A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname. For example, "/*.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
Examples
All arguments are optional so calling git-ignore alone will display first the global then the local gitignore files:$ git ignore
Global gitignore: /home/alice/.gitignore
# Numerous always-ignore extensions
*.diff
*.err
*.orig
*.rej
*.swo
*.swp
*.vi
*~
*.sass-cache
# OS or Editor folders
.DS_Store
.Trashes
._*
Thumbs.db
———————————
Local gitignore: .gitignore
.cache
.project
.settings
.tmproj
nbproject
If you only want to see the global context use the –global argument (for local use –local):
$ git ignore
Global gitignore: /home/alice/.gitignore
.DS_Store
.Trashes
._*
Thumbs.db
To quickly append a new pattern to the default/local context simply:
$ git ignore *.log
Adding pattern(s) to: .gitignore
… adding ‘*.log’
You can now configure any patterns without ever using an editor, with a context and pattern arguments: The resulting configuration is also returned for your convenience.
$ git ignore –local "" "# Temporary files" *.tmp "*.log" tmp/* "" "# Files I’d like to keep" ‘!work’ ""
Adding pattern(s) to: .gitignore
… adding ”
… adding ‘# Temporary files’
… adding ‘index.tmp’
… adding ‘*.log’
… adding ‘tmp/*’
… adding ”
… adding ‘# Files I’d like to keep’
… adding ‘!work’
… adding ”
Local gitignore: .gitignore
# Temporary files
index.tmp
*.log
# Files I’d like to keep
!work