# git-check-ignore(1) - man - phpman

> **TLDR:** Analyze and debug Git ignore/exclude (`.gitignore`) files.
>
- Check whether a file or directory is ignored:
  `git check-ignore {{path/to/file_or_directory}}`
- Check whether multiple files or directories are ignored:
  `git check-ignore {{path/to/file_or_directory1 path/to/file_or_directory2 ...}}`
- Use pathnames, one per line, from `stdin`:
  `git < {{path/to/file_list}} check-ignore --stdin`
- Do not check the index (used to debug why paths were tracked and not ignored):
  `git check-ignore --no-index {{path/to/file_or_directory1 path/to/file_or_directory2 ...}}`
- Include details about the matching pattern for each path:
  `git check-ignore {{-v|--verbose}} {{path/to/file_or_directory1 path/to/file_or_directory2 ...}}`

*Source: tldr-pages*

---

[GIT-CHECK-IGNORE(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/GIT-CHECK-IGNORE/1/markdown)                          Git Manual                          [GIT-CHECK-IGNORE(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/GIT-CHECK-IGNORE/1/markdown)



## NAME
       git-check-ignore - Debug gitignore / exclude files

## SYNOPSIS
       _git_ _check-ignore_ [<options>] <pathname>...
       _git_ _check-ignore_ [<options>] --stdin


## DESCRIPTION
       For each pathname given via the command-line or from a file via **--stdin**, check whether the
       file is excluded by .gitignore (or other input files to the exclude mechanism) and output the
       path if it is excluded.

       By default, tracked files are not shown at all since they are not subject to exclude rules;
       but see ‘--no-index’.

## OPTIONS
### -q, --quiet
           Don’t output anything, just set exit status. This is only valid with a single pathname.

### -v, --verbose
           Instead of printing the paths that are excluded, for each path that matches an exclude
           pattern, print the exclude pattern together with the path. (Matching an exclude pattern
           usually means the path is excluded, but if the pattern begins with _!_  then it is a
           negated pattern and matching it means the path is NOT excluded.)

           For precedence rules within and between exclude sources, see [**gitignore**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gitignore/5/markdown).

### --stdin
           Read pathnames from the standard input, one per line, instead of from the command-line.

### -z
           The output format is modified to be machine-parsable (see below). If **--stdin** is also
           given, input paths are separated with a NUL character instead of a linefeed character.

### -n, --non-matching
           Show given paths which don’t match any pattern. This only makes sense when **--verbose** is
           enabled, otherwise it would not be possible to distinguish between paths which match a
           pattern and those which don’t.

### --no-index
           Don’t look in the index when undertaking the checks. This can be used to debug why a path
           became tracked by e.g.  **git** **add** **.**  and was not ignored by the rules as expected by the
           user or when developing patterns including negation to match a path previously added with
           **git** **add** **-f**.

## OUTPUT
       By default, any of the given pathnames which match an ignore pattern will be output, one per
       line. If no pattern matches a given path, nothing will be output for that path; this means
       that path will not be ignored.

       If **--verbose** is specified, the output is a series of lines of the form:

       <source> <COLON> <linenum> <COLON> <pattern> <HT> <pathname>

       <pathname> is the path of a file being queried, <pattern> is the matching pattern, <source>
       is the pattern’s source file, and <linenum> is the line number of the pattern within that
       source. If the pattern contained a **!** prefix or **/** suffix, it will be preserved in the output.
       <source> will be an absolute path when referring to the file configured by **core.excludesFile**,
       or relative to the repository root when referring to **.git/info/exclude** or a per-directory
       exclude file.

       If **-z** is specified, the pathnames in the output are delimited by the null character; if
       **--verbose** is also specified then null characters are also used instead of colons and hard
       tabs:

       <source> <NULL> <linenum> <NULL> <pattern> <NULL> <pathname> <NULL>

       If **-n** or **--non-matching** are specified, non-matching pathnames will also be output, in which
       case all fields in each output record except for <pathname> will be empty. This can be useful
       when running non-interactively, so that files can be incrementally streamed to STDIN of a
       long-running check-ignore process, and for each of these files, STDOUT will indicate whether
       that file matched a pattern or not. (Without this option, it would be impossible to tell
       whether the absence of output for a given file meant that it didn’t match any pattern, or
       that the output hadn’t been generated yet.)

       Buffering happens as documented under the **GIT**___**FLUSH** option in [**git**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git/1/markdown). The caller is
       responsible for avoiding deadlocks caused by overfilling an input buffer or reading from an
       empty output buffer.

## EXIT STATUS
       0
           One or more of the provided paths is ignored.

       1
           None of the provided paths are ignored.

       128
           A fatal error was encountered.

## SEE ALSO
       [**gitignore**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gitignore/5/markdown) [**git-config**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git-config/1/markdown) [**git-ls-files**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git-ls-files/1/markdown)

## GIT
       Part of the [**git**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git/1/markdown) suite



Git 2.34.1                                   02/26/2026                          [GIT-CHECK-IGNORE(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/GIT-CHECK-IGNORE/1/markdown)