Can I ignore files locally without polluting the global git config for everyone else? I have untracked files that are spam in my git status but I don't want to commit git config changes for every single little random untracked file I have in my local branches.
12 Answers
2130
votes
From the relevant Git documentation:
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's workflow) should go into the
$GIT_DIR/info/excludefile.
The .git/info/exclude file has the same format as any .gitignore file. Another option is to set core.excludesFile to the name of a file containing global patterns.
Note, if you already have unstaged changes you must run the following after editing your ignore-patterns:
git update-index --assume-unchanged <file-list>
Note on $GIT_DIR: This is a notation used all over the git manual simply to indicate the path to the git repository. If the environment variable is set, then it will override the location of whichever repo you're in, which probably isn't what you want.
Edit: Another way is to use:
git update-index --skip-worktree <file-list>
Reverse it by:
git update-index --no-skip-worktree <file-list>
453
votes
Update: Consider using git update-index --skip-worktree [<file>...] instead, thanks @danShumway! See Borealid's explanation on the difference of the two options.
Old answer:
If you need to ignore local changes to tracked files (we have that with local modifications to config files), use git update-index --assume-unchanged [<file>...].
183
votes
Add the following lines to the [alias] section of your .gitconfig file
ignore = update-index --assume-unchanged
unignore = update-index --no-assume-unchanged
ignored = !git ls-files -v | grep "^[[:lower:]]"
Now you can use git ignore my_file to ignore changes to the local file, and git unignore my_file to stop ignoring the changes. git ignored lists the ignored files.
This answer was gleaned from http://gitready.com/intermediate/2009/02/18/temporarily-ignoring-files.html.
127
votes
You have several options:
- Leave a dirty (or uncommitted)
.gitignorefile in your working dir (or apply it automatically using topgit or some other such patch tool). - Put the excludes in your
$GIT_DIR/info/excludefile, if this is specific to one tree. - Run
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignoreand add patterns to your~/.gitignore. This option applies if you want to ignore certain patterns across all trees. I use this for.pycand.pyofiles, for example.
Also, make sure you are using patterns and not explicitly enumerating files, when applicable.
84
votes
I think you are looking for:
git update-index --skip-worktree FILENAME
which ignore changes made local
Here's http://devblog.avdi.org/2011/05/20/keep-local-modifications-in-git-tracked-files/ more explanation about these solution!
to undo use:
git update-index --no-skip-worktree FILENAME
55
votes
You can simply add a .gitignore file to your home directory, i.e. $HOME/.gitignore or ~/.gitignore. Then tell git to use that file with the command:
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore
This is a normal .gitignore file which git references when deciding what to ignore. Since it's in your home directory, it applies only to you and doesn't pollute any project .gitignore files.
I've been using this approach for years with great results.
52
votes
You can install some git aliases to make this process simpler. This edits the [alias] node of your .gitconfig file.
git config --global alias.ignore 'update-index --skip-worktree'
git config --global alias.unignore 'update-index --no-skip-worktree'
git config --global alias.ignored '!git ls-files -v | grep "^S"'
The shortcuts this installs for you are as follows:
git ignore config.xml- git will pretend that it doesn't see any changes upon
config.xml— preventing you from accidentally committing those changes.
- git will pretend that it doesn't see any changes upon
git unignore config.xml- git will resume acknowledging your changes to
config.xml— allowing you again to commit those changes.
- git will resume acknowledging your changes to
git ignored- git will list all the files which you are "ignoring" in the manner described above.
I built these by referring to phatmann's answer — which presents an --assume-unchanged version of the same.
The version I present uses --skip-worktree for ignoring local changes. See Borealid's answer for a full explanation of the difference, but essentially --skip-worktree's purpose is for developers to change files without the risk of committing their changes.
The git ignored command presented here uses git ls-files -v, and filters the list to show just those entries beginning with the S tag. The S tag denotes a file whose status is "skip worktree". For a full list of the file statuses shown by git ls-files: see the documentation for the -t option on git ls-files.
9
votes
7
votes
Both --assume-unchanged and --skip-worktree are NOT A CORRECT WAY to ignore files locally... Kindly check this answer and the notes in the documentation of git update-index. Files that for any reason keep changing frequently (and/or change from a clone to another) and their changes should not be committed, then these files SHOULD NOT be tracked in the first place.
However, the are two proper ways to ignore files locally (both work with untracked files). Either to put files names in .git/info/exclude file which is the local alternative of .gitignore but specific to the current clone. Or to use a global .gitignore (which should be properly used only for common auxiliary files e.g. pyz, pycache, etc) and the file will be ignored in any git repo in your machine.
To make the above as kind of automated (adding to exclude or global .gitignore), you can use the following commands (add to your bash-profile):
- Per clone local exclude (Note that you should be in the root of the
repository when calling the command because of using the relative path), change ##FILE-NAME## to
.git/info/exclude - Global .gitignore, first make global .gitignore here then
change ##FILE-NAME## to
~/.gitignore
Linux
alias git-ignore='echo $1 >> ##FILE-NAME##'
alias git-show-ignored='cat ##FILE-NAME##'
git-unignore(){
GITFILETOUNIGNORE=${1//\//\\\/}
sed -i "/$GITFILETOUNIGNORE/d" ##FILE-NAME##
unset GITFILETOUNIGNORE
}
MacOS (you need the .bak for sed inplace modifications (i.e. you are forced to add a file extension to inplace sed. i.e. make a backup before replacing something), therefore to delete the .bak file I added rm filename.bak)
alias git-ignore='echo $1 >> ##FILE-NAME##'
alias git-show-ignored='cat ##FILE-NAME##'
git-unignore(){
GITFILETOUNIGNORE=${1//\//\\\/}
sed -i.bak "/$GITFILETOUNIGNORE/d" ##FILE-NAME##
rm ##FILE-NAME##.bak
unset GITFILETOUNIGNORE
}
Then you can do:
git-ignore example_file.txtgit-unignore example_file.txt
4
votes
In order to ignore untracked files especially if they are located in (a few) folders that are not tracked, a simple solution is to add a .gitignore file to every untracked folder and enter in a single line containing * followed by a new line. It's a really simple and straightforward solution if the untracked files are in a few folders. For me, all files were coming from a single untracked folder vendor and the above just worked.
0
votes
