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.

.gitignore: Keep Unwanted Files Out of Your Repository