{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "gitignore", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gitignore/5/json", "generated": "2026-06-02T17:54:28Z", "synopsis": "$XDGCONFIGHOME/git/ignore, $GITDIR/info/exclude, .gitignore", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "$XDGCONFIGHOME/git/ignore, $GITDIR/info/exclude, .gitignore\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "A gitignore file specifies intentionally untracked files that Git should ignore. Files\nalready tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES below for details.\n\nEach line in a gitignore file specifies a pattern. When deciding whether to ignore a path,\nGit normally checks gitignore patterns from multiple sources, with the following order of\nprecedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of precedence, the last matching pattern\ndecides the outcome):\n\n• Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support them.\n\n• Patterns read from a .gitignore file in the same directory as the path, or in any parent\ndirectory (up to the top-level of the working tree), with patterns in the higher level\nfiles being overridden by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the\nfile. These patterns match relative to the location of the .gitignore file. A project\nnormally includes such .gitignore files in its repository, containing patterns for files\ngenerated as part of the project build.\n\n• Patterns read from $GITDIR/info/exclude.\n\n• Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration variable core.excludesFile.\n\nWhich file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to be used.\n\n• Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to other repositories via\nclone (i.e., files that all developers will want to ignore) should go into a .gitignore\nfile.\n\n• Patterns which are specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared\nwith other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside the repository\nbut are specific to one user’s workflow) should go into the $GITDIR/info/exclude file.\n\n• Patterns which a user wants Git to ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary\nfiles generated by the user’s editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by\ncore.excludesFile in the user’s ~/.gitconfig. Its default value is\n$XDGCONFIGHOME/git/ignore. If $XDGCONFIGHOME is either not set or empty,\n$HOME/.config/git/ignore is used instead.\n\nThe underlying Git plumbing tools, such as git ls-files and git read-tree, read gitignore\npatterns specified by command-line options, or from files specified by command-line options.\nHigher-level Git tools, such as git status and git add, use patterns from the sources\nspecified above.\n", "subsections": [] }, "PATTERN FORMAT": { "content": "• A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for readability.\n\n• A line starting with # serves as a comment. Put a backslash (\"\\\") in front of the first\nhash for patterns that begin with a hash.\n\n• Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash (\"\\\").\n\n• An optional prefix \"!\" which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a\nprevious pattern will become included again. It is not possible to re-include a file if a\nparent directory of that file is excluded. Git doesn’t list excluded directories for\nperformance reasons, so any patterns on contained files have no effect, no matter where\nthey are defined. Put a backslash (\"\\\") in front of the first \"!\" for patterns that begin\nwith a literal \"!\", for example, \"\\!important!.txt\".\n\n• The slash / is used as the directory separator. Separators may occur at the beginning,\nmiddle or end of the .gitignore search pattern.\n\n• If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the pattern, then the\npattern is relative to the directory level of the particular .gitignore file itself.\nOtherwise the pattern may also match at any level below the .gitignore level.\n\n• If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern will only match\ndirectories, otherwise the pattern can match both files and directories.\n\n• For example, a pattern doc/frotz/ matches doc/frotz directory, but not a/doc/frotz\ndirectory; however frotz/ matches frotz and a/frotz that is a directory (all paths are\nrelative from the .gitignore file).\n\n• An asterisk \"*\" matches anything except a slash. The character \"?\" matches any one\ncharacter except \"/\". The range notation, e.g. [a-zA-Z], can be used to match one of the\ncharacters in a range. See fnmatch(3) and the FNMPATHNAME flag for a more detailed\ndescription.\n\nTwo consecutive asterisks (\"\") in patterns matched against full pathname may have special\nmeaning:\n\n• A leading \"\" followed by a slash means match in all directories. For example, \"/foo\"\nmatches file or directory \"foo\" anywhere, the same as pattern \"foo\". \"/foo/bar\" matches\nfile or directory \"bar\" anywhere that is directly under directory \"foo\".\n\n• A trailing \"/\" matches everything inside. For example, \"abc/\" matches all files\ninside directory \"abc\", relative to the location of the .gitignore file, with infinite\ndepth.\n\n• A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash matches zero or more\ndirectories. For example, \"a//b\" matches \"a/b\", \"a/x/b\", \"a/x/y/b\" and so on.\n\n• Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and will match according to\nthe previous rules.\n", "subsections": [] }, "CONFIGURATION": { "content": "The optional configuration variable core.excludesFile indicates a path to a file containing\npatterns of file names to exclude, similar to $GITDIR/info/exclude. Patterns in the exclude\nfile are used in addition to those in $GITDIR/info/exclude.\n", "subsections": [] }, "NOTES": { "content": "The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not tracked by Git remain\nuntracked.\n\nTo stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use git rm --cached.\n\nGit does not follow symbolic links when accessing a .gitignore file in the working tree. This\nkeeps behavior consistent when the file is accessed from the index or a tree versus from the\nfilesystem.\n", "subsections": [] }, "EXAMPLES": { "content": "• The pattern hello.* matches any file or directory whose name begins with hello.. If one\nwants to restrict this only to the directory and not in its subdirectories, one can\nprepend the pattern with a slash, i.e. /hello.*; the pattern now matches hello.txt,\nhello.c but not a/hello.java.\n\n• The pattern foo/ will match a directory foo and paths underneath it, but will not match a\nregular file or a symbolic link foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works\nin general in Git)\n\n• The pattern doc/frotz and /doc/frotz have the same effect in any .gitignore file. In\nother words, a leading slash is not relevant if there is already a middle slash in the\npattern.\n\n• The pattern \"foo/*\", matches \"foo/test.json\" (a regular file), \"foo/bar\" (a directory),\nbut it does not match \"foo/bar/hello.c\" (a regular file), as the asterisk in the pattern\ndoes not match \"bar/hello.c\" which has a slash in it.\n\n$ git status\n[...]\n# Untracked files:\n[...]\n# Documentation/foo.html\n# Documentation/gitignore.html\n# file.o\n# lib.a\n# src/internal.o\n[...]\n$ cat .git/info/exclude\n# ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.\n*.[oa]\n$ cat Documentation/.gitignore\n# ignore generated html files,\n*.html\n# except foo.html which is maintained by hand\n!foo.html\n$ git status\n[...]\n# Untracked files:\n[...]\n# Documentation/foo.html\n[...]\n\n\nAnother example:\n\n$ cat .gitignore\nvmlinux*\n$ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*\narch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S\n$ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore\n\n\nThe second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S.\n\nExample to exclude everything except a specific directory foo/bar (note the /* - without the\nslash, the wildcard would also exclude everything within foo/bar):\n\n$ cat .gitignore\n# exclude everything except directory foo/bar\n/*\n!/foo\n/foo/*\n!/foo/bar\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "git-rm(1), gitrepository-layout(5), git-check-ignore(1)\n", "subsections": [] }, "GIT": { "content": "Part of the git(1) suite\n\n\n\nGit 2.34.1 02/26/2026 GITIGNORE(5)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore", "flags": [], "examples": [ "• The pattern hello.* matches any file or directory whose name begins with hello.. If one", "wants to restrict this only to the directory and not in its subdirectories, one can", "prepend the pattern with a slash, i.e. /hello.*; the pattern now matches hello.txt,", "hello.c but not a/hello.java.", "• The pattern 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)", "• The pattern doc/frotz and /doc/frotz have the same effect in any .gitignore file. In", "other words, a leading slash is not relevant if there is already a middle slash in the", "pattern.", "• The pattern \"foo/*\", matches \"foo/test.json\" (a regular file), \"foo/bar\" (a directory),", "but it does not match \"foo/bar/hello.c\" (a regular file), as the asterisk in the pattern", "does not match \"bar/hello.c\" which has a slash in it.", "$ git status", "[...]", "# Untracked files:", "[...]", "# Documentation/foo.html", "# Documentation/gitignore.html", "# file.o", "# lib.a", "# src/internal.o", "[...]", "$ cat .git/info/exclude", "# ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.", "*.[oa]", "$ cat Documentation/.gitignore", "# ignore generated html files,", "*.html", "# except foo.html which is maintained by hand", "!foo.html", "$ git status", "[...]", "# Untracked files:", "[...]", "# Documentation/foo.html", "[...]", "Another example:", "$ cat .gitignore", "vmlinux*", "$ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*", "arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S", "$ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore", "The second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S.", "Example to exclude everything except a specific directory foo/bar (note the /* - without the", "slash, the wildcard would also exclude everything within foo/bar):", "$ cat .gitignore", "# exclude everything except directory foo/bar", "/*", "!/foo", "/foo/*", "!/foo/bar" ], "see_also": [ { "name": "git-rm", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git-rm/1/json" }, { "name": "gitrepository-layout", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gitrepository-layout/5/json" }, { "name": "git-check-ignore", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git-check-ignore/1/json" } ] }