man5/gitignore.5 - pub/scm/git/git-manpages - Git at Google

 '\" t
 .\"     Title: gitignore
 .\"    Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/author]
 .\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
 .\"      Date: 05/06/2022
 .\"    Manual: Git Manual
 .\"    Source: Git 2.36.1.19.ge8005e4871
 .\"  Language: English
 .\"
 .TH "GITIGNORE" "5" "05/06/2022" "Git 2\&.36\&.1\&.19\&.ge8005e4" "Git Manual"
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .\" * Define some portability stuff
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 .\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
 .\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 .ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
 .el       .ds Aq '
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .\" * set default formatting
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .\" disable hyphenation
 .nh
 .\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
 .ad l
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .SH "NAME"
 gitignore \- Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
 .SH "SYNOPSIS"
 .sp
 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, \&.gitignore
 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
 .sp
 A \fBgitignore\fR file specifies intentionally untracked files that Git should ignore\&. Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES below for details\&.
 .sp
 Each line in a \fBgitignore\fR file specifies a pattern\&. When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks \fBgitignore\fR patterns from multiple sources, with the following order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support them\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Patterns read from a
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 file in the same directory as the path, or in any parent directory (up to the top\-level of the working tree), with patterns in the higher level files being overridden by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file\&. These patterns match relative to the location of the
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 file\&. A project normally includes such
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 files in its repository, containing patterns for files generated as part of the project build\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Patterns read from
 \fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration variable
 \fBcore\&.excludesFile\fR\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to be used\&.
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Patterns which should be version\-controlled and distributed to other repositories via clone (i\&.e\&., files that all developers will want to ignore) should go into a
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 file\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Patterns which are specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared with other related repositories (e\&.g\&., auxiliary files that live inside the repository but are specific to one user\(cqs workflow) should go into the
 \fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR
 file\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Patterns which a user wants Git to ignore in all situations (e\&.g\&., backup or temporary files generated by the user\(cqs editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
 \fBcore\&.excludesFile\fR
 in the user\(cqs
 \fB~/\&.gitconfig\fR\&. Its default value is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore\&. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or empty, $HOME/\&.config/git/ignore is used instead\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 The underlying Git plumbing tools, such as \fIgit ls\-files\fR and \fIgit read\-tree\fR, read \fBgitignore\fR patterns specified by command\-line options, or from files specified by command\-line options\&. Higher\-level Git tools, such as \fIgit status\fR and \fIgit add\fR, use patterns from the sources specified above\&.
 .SH "PATTERN FORMAT"
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for readability\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 A line starting with # serves as a comment\&. Put a backslash ("\fB\e\fR") in front of the first hash for patterns that begin with a hash\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash ("\fB\e\fR")\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 An optional prefix "\fB!\fR" which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again\&. It is not possible to re\-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded\&. Git doesn\(cqt list excluded directories for performance reasons, so any patterns on contained files have no effect, no matter where they are defined\&. Put a backslash ("\fB\e\fR") in front of the first "\fB!\fR" for patterns that begin with a literal "\fB!\fR", for example, "\fB\e!important!\&.txt\fR"\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 The slash
 \fI/\fR
 is used as the directory separator\&. Separators may occur at the beginning, middle or end of the
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 search pattern\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the particular
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 file itself\&. Otherwise the pattern may also match at any level below the
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 level\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both files and directories\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 For example, a pattern
 \fBdoc/frotz/\fR
 matches
 \fBdoc/frotz\fR
 directory, but not
 \fBa/doc/frotz\fR
 directory; however
 \fBfrotz/\fR
 matches
 \fBfrotz\fR
 and
 \fBa/frotz\fR
 that is a directory (all paths are relative from the
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 file)\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 An asterisk "\fB*\fR" matches anything except a slash\&. The character "\fB?\fR" matches any one character except "\fB/\fR"\&. The range notation, e\&.g\&.
 \fB[a\-zA\-Z]\fR, can be used to match one of the characters in a range\&. See fnmatch(3) and the FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed description\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 Two consecutive asterisks ("\fB**\fR") in patterns matched against full pathname may have special meaning:
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 A leading "\fB**\fR" followed by a slash means match in all directories\&. For example, "\fB**/foo\fR" matches file or directory "\fBfoo\fR" anywhere, the same as pattern "\fBfoo\fR"\&. "\fB**/foo/bar\fR" matches file or directory "\fBbar\fR" anywhere that is directly under directory "\fBfoo\fR"\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 A trailing "\fB/**\fR" matches everything inside\&. For example, "\fBabc/**\fR" matches all files inside directory "\fBabc\fR", relative to the location of the
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 file, with infinite depth\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash matches zero or more directories\&. For example, "\fBa/**/b\fR" matches "\fBa/b\fR", "\fBa/x/b\fR", "\fBa/x/y/b\fR" and so on\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and will match according to the previous rules\&.
 .RE
 .SH "CONFIGURATION"
 .sp
 The optional configuration variable \fBcore\&.excludesFile\fR indicates a path to a file containing patterns of file names to exclude, similar to \fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR\&. Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to those in \fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR\&.
 .SH "NOTES"
 .sp
 The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not tracked by Git remain untracked\&.
 .sp
 To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use \fIgit rm \-\-cached\fR\&.
 .sp
 Git does not follow symbolic links when accessing a \fB\&.gitignore\fR file in the working tree\&. This keeps behavior consistent when the file is accessed from the index or a tree versus from the filesystem\&.
 .SH "EXAMPLES"
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 The pattern
 \fBhello\&.*\fR
 matches any file or directory whose name begins with
 \fBhello\&.\fR\&. 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\&.
 \fB/hello\&.*\fR; the pattern now matches
 \fBhello\&.txt\fR,
 \fBhello\&.c\fR
 but not
 \fBa/hello\&.java\fR\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 The pattern
 \fBfoo/\fR
 will match a directory
 \fBfoo\fR
 and paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link
 \fBfoo\fR
 (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general in Git)
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 The pattern
 \fBdoc/frotz\fR
 and
 \fB/doc/frotz\fR
 have the same effect in any
 \fB\&.gitignore\fR
 file\&. In other words, a leading slash is not relevant if there is already a middle slash in the pattern\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .ie n \{\
 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .sp -1
 .IP \(bu 2.3
 .\}
 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\&.
 .RE
 .sp
 .if n \{\
 .RS 4
 .\}
 .nf
     $ 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
     [\&.\&.\&.]
 .fi
 .if n \{\
 .RE
 .\}
 .sp
 .sp
 Another example:
 .sp
 .if n \{\
 .RS 4
 .\}
 .nf
     $ cat \&.gitignore
     vmlinux*
     $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
     arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux\&.lds\&.S
     $ echo \(aq!/vmlinux*\(aq >arch/foo/kernel/\&.gitignore
 .fi
 .if n \{\
 .RE
 .\}
 .sp
 .sp
 The second \&.gitignore prevents Git from ignoring \fBarch/foo/kernel/vmlinux\&.lds\&.S\fR\&.
 .sp
 Example to exclude everything except a specific directory \fBfoo/bar\fR (note the \fB/*\fR \- without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude everything within \fBfoo/bar\fR):
 .sp
 .if n \{\
 .RS 4
 .\}
 .nf
     $ cat \&.gitignore
     # exclude everything except directory foo/bar
     /*
     !/foo
     /foo/*
     !/foo/bar
 .fi
 .if n \{\
 .RE
 .\}
 .sp
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .sp
 \fBgit-rm\fR(1), \fBgitrepository-layout\fR(5), \fBgit-check-ignore\fR(1)
 .SH "GIT"
 .sp
 Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite
	'\" t
	.\" Title: gitignore
	.\" Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/author]
	.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
	.\" Date: 05/06/2022
	.\" Manual: Git Manual
	.\" Source: Git 2.36.1.19.ge8005e4871
	.\" Language: English
	.\"
	.TH "GITIGNORE" "5" "05/06/2022" "Git 2\&.36\&.1\&.19\&.ge8005e4" "Git Manual"
	.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
	.\" * Define some portability stuff
	.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
	.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	.\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
	.\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
	.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
	.el .ds Aq '
	.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
	.\" * set default formatting
	.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
	.\" disable hyphenation
	.nh
	.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
	.ad l
	.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
	.\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
	.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
	.SH "NAME"
	gitignore \- Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
	.SH "SYNOPSIS"
	.sp
	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, \&.gitignore
	.SH "DESCRIPTION"
	.sp
	A \fBgitignore\fR file specifies intentionally untracked files that Git should ignore\&. Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES below for details\&.
	.sp
	Each line in a \fBgitignore\fR file specifies a pattern\&. When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks \fBgitignore\fR patterns from multiple sources, with the following order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support them\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Patterns read from a
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	file in the same directory as the path, or in any parent directory (up to the top\-level of the working tree), with patterns in the higher level files being overridden by those in lower level files down to the directory containing the file\&. These patterns match relative to the location of the
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	file\&. A project normally includes such
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	files in its repository, containing patterns for files generated as part of the project build\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Patterns read from
	\fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration variable
	\fBcore\&.excludesFile\fR\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to be used\&.
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Patterns which should be version\-controlled and distributed to other repositories via clone (i\&.e\&., files that all developers will want to ignore) should go into a
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	file\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Patterns which are specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared with other related repositories (e\&.g\&., auxiliary files that live inside the repository but are specific to one user\(cqs workflow) should go into the
	\fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR
	file\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Patterns which a user wants Git to ignore in all situations (e\&.g\&., backup or temporary files generated by the user\(cqs editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
	\fBcore\&.excludesFile\fR
	in the user\(cqs
	\fB~/\&.gitconfig\fR\&. Its default value is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore\&. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or empty, $HOME/\&.config/git/ignore is used instead\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	The underlying Git plumbing tools, such as \fIgit ls\-files\fR and \fIgit read\-tree\fR, read \fBgitignore\fR patterns specified by command\-line options, or from files specified by command\-line options\&. Higher\-level Git tools, such as \fIgit status\fR and \fIgit add\fR, use patterns from the sources specified above\&.
	.SH "PATTERN FORMAT"
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for readability\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	A line starting with # serves as a comment\&. Put a backslash ("\fB\e\fR") in front of the first hash for patterns that begin with a hash\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash ("\fB\e\fR")\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	An optional prefix "\fB!\fR" which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again\&. It is not possible to re\-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded\&. Git doesn\(cqt list excluded directories for performance reasons, so any patterns on contained files have no effect, no matter where they are defined\&. Put a backslash ("\fB\e\fR") in front of the first "\fB!\fR" for patterns that begin with a literal "\fB!\fR", for example, "\fB\e!important!\&.txt\fR"\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	The slash
	\fI/\fR
	is used as the directory separator\&. Separators may occur at the beginning, middle or end of the
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	search pattern\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the particular
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	file itself\&. Otherwise the pattern may also match at any level below the
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	level\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both files and directories\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	For example, a pattern
	\fBdoc/frotz/\fR
	matches
	\fBdoc/frotz\fR
	directory, but not
	\fBa/doc/frotz\fR
	directory; however
	\fBfrotz/\fR
	matches
	\fBfrotz\fR
	and
	\fBa/frotz\fR
	that is a directory (all paths are relative from the
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	file)\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	An asterisk "\fB*\fR" matches anything except a slash\&. The character "\fB?\fR" matches any one character except "\fB/\fR"\&. The range notation, e\&.g\&.
	\fB[a\-zA\-Z]\fR, can be used to match one of the characters in a range\&. See fnmatch(3) and the FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed description\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	Two consecutive asterisks ("\fB**\fR") in patterns matched against full pathname may have special meaning:
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	A leading "\fB\fR" followed by a slash means match in all directories\&. For example, "\fB/foo\fR" matches file or directory "\fBfoo\fR" anywhere, the same as pattern "\fBfoo\fR"\&. "\fB**/foo/bar\fR" matches file or directory "\fBbar\fR" anywhere that is directly under directory "\fBfoo\fR"\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	A trailing "\fB/\fR" matches everything inside\&. For example, "\fBabc/\fR" matches all files inside directory "\fBabc\fR", relative to the location of the
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	file, with infinite depth\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash matches zero or more directories\&. For example, "\fBa/**/b\fR" matches "\fBa/b\fR", "\fBa/x/b\fR", "\fBa/x/y/b\fR" and so on\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and will match according to the previous rules\&.
	.RE
	.SH "CONFIGURATION"
	.sp
	The optional configuration variable \fBcore\&.excludesFile\fR indicates a path to a file containing patterns of file names to exclude, similar to \fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR\&. Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to those in \fB$GIT_DIR/info/exclude\fR\&.
	.SH "NOTES"
	.sp
	The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not tracked by Git remain untracked\&.
	.sp
	To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use \fIgit rm \-\-cached\fR\&.
	.sp
	Git does not follow symbolic links when accessing a \fB\&.gitignore\fR file in the working tree\&. This keeps behavior consistent when the file is accessed from the index or a tree versus from the filesystem\&.
	.SH "EXAMPLES"
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	The pattern
	\fBhello\&.*\fR
	matches any file or directory whose name begins with
	\fBhello\&.\fR\&. 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\&.
	\fB/hello\&.*\fR; the pattern now matches
	\fBhello\&.txt\fR,
	\fBhello\&.c\fR
	but not
	\fBa/hello\&.java\fR\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	The pattern
	\fBfoo/\fR
	will match a directory
	\fBfoo\fR
	and paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link
	\fBfoo\fR
	(this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general in Git)
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	The pattern
	\fBdoc/frotz\fR
	and
	\fB/doc/frotz\fR
	have the same effect in any
	\fB\&.gitignore\fR
	file\&. In other words, a leading slash is not relevant if there is already a middle slash in the pattern\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.RS 4
	.ie n \{\
	\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
	.\}
	.el \{\
	.sp -1
	.IP \(bu 2.3
	.\}
	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\&.
	.RE
	.sp
	.if n \{\
	.RS 4
	.\}
	.nf
	$ 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
	[\&.\&.\&.]
	.fi
	.if n \{\
	.RE
	.\}
	.sp
	.sp
	Another example:
	.sp
	.if n \{\
	.RS 4
	.\}
	.nf
	$ cat \&.gitignore
	vmlinux*
	$ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
	arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux\&.lds\&.S
	$ echo \(aq!/vmlinux*\(aq >arch/foo/kernel/\&.gitignore
	.fi
	.if n \{\
	.RE
	.\}
	.sp
	.sp
	The second \&.gitignore prevents Git from ignoring \fBarch/foo/kernel/vmlinux\&.lds\&.S\fR\&.
	.sp
	Example to exclude everything except a specific directory \fBfoo/bar\fR (note the \fB/*\fR \- without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude everything within \fBfoo/bar\fR):
	.sp
	.if n \{\
	.RS 4
	.\}
	.nf
	$ cat \&.gitignore
	# exclude everything except directory foo/bar
	/*
	!/foo
	/foo/*
	!/foo/bar
	.fi
	.if n \{\
	.RE
	.\}
	.sp
	.SH "SEE ALSO"
	.sp
	\fBgit-rm\fR(1), \fBgitrepository-layout\fR(5), \fBgit-check-ignore\fR(1)
	.SH "GIT"
	.sp
	Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite