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haymansfield
haymansfield

Reputation: 5647

Git: Ignore tracked files

I have some tracked files in a repository which are automatically modified when building the code. I don't want to untrack them, I just don't want them to appear as modified and I don't want them to be staged when I git add.

Is this possible?

Upvotes: 288

Views: 89681

Answers (4)

Gerhard
Gerhard

Reputation: 798

The accepted answer is not correct. --assume-unchanged only causes Git to skip certain (sometimes expensive) file system checks -- it doesn't guarantee that Git shows the file as "unchanged".

The same command but with the option --skip-worktree, however, does work. So to prevent a tracked but changed file from appearing as changed in the Git status, use

git update-index --skip-worktree [<file> ...]

To undo and start showing it as changed again:

git update-index --no-skip-worktree [<file> ...]

See also the cited email from a Git maintainer in this answer, the Git documentation git-update-index, and FallenGameR's blog entry about how the two react to different scenarios.

Upvotes: 48

rogerdpack
rogerdpack

Reputation: 66741

Another approach (from a now deleted answer by Seth Robertson, but I found it helpful so resurrecting it) is to maintain a "tracked" template file, then have local untracked version of it, ex: "config.sample.ini" or "config.ini.template" see https://gist.github.com/canton7/1423106 for a full example.

Then there won't be any concerns if the file is changed within git, etc. and you can use .gitignore (finally) on the local untracked files.

Upvotes: 13

Nick Veys
Nick Veys

Reputation: 23939

Sure.

git update-index --assume-unchanged [<file> ...]

To undo and start tracking again:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged [<file> ...]

Upvotes: 437

koct9i
koct9i

Reputation: 75

An another solution using git attributes and %f in filter command:

git config filter.orig.clean "cat %f.orig"
cp filename filename.orig
echo "filename filter=orig" >> .git/info/attributes
echo "filename.orig" >> .git/info/exclude

Upvotes: 5

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