February 28, 2024Guide5 min read

.gitignore: Keep Unwanted Files Out of Your Repository

What Is .gitignore?

A .gitignore file tells Git which files and directories to ignore — they will never be staged, committed, or tracked. Every project should have one.

# Dependencies
node_modules/

# Build output
dist/
build/
out/

# Environment
.env
.env.local

# Logs
*.log

# OS files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

Pattern Rules

# Ignore a specific file
secret.txt

# Ignore a directory
build/

# Wildcard — ignore all .log files
*.log

# Ignore everything in a directory, but not the directory itself
logs/*
!logs/.gitkeep

# Ignore files at root only
/key.pem     # ignores /key.pem but not src/key.pem

Global .gitignore

Set up a global ignore file for your OS and editor files:

git config --global core.excludesFile ~/.gitignore_global

Then add things like .DS_Store and *.swp to ~/.gitignore_global.

Remove a Tracked File

If you accidentally committed a file that should be ignored:

# Add it to .gitignore first
echo ".env" >> .gitignore

# Remove from tracking (keep on disk)
git rm --cached .env

# Commit the removal
git commit -m "Stop tracking .env"

Check Why a File Is Ignored

git check-ignore -v node_modules/package.json
# Output: .gitignore:2:node_modules/  node_modules/package.json

Templates

Use gitignore.io in your browser or terminal to generate starter files for your tech stack. Every language and framework has standard patterns — start from there and customize.

A well-maintained .gitignore prevents security leaks, keeps your repo lean, and makes code reviews faster by excluding generated files.

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