CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitgitignoremsysgit
ellriley
ellriley

Reputation: 655

.gitignore negation not working

I'm using msysgit 1.9.4.

My .gitignore file, at the root of the repo, looks like this:

build/
a/b/
!a/c/d/e/**/build/

My intent is that, all build/ directories are ignored, unless they are subdirs (any depth) of a/c/d/e/. But a/c/d/e/f/build/ is still getting ignored by Git.

What am I missing here?

Upvotes: 15

Views: 4782

Answers (2)

ESP32
ESP32

Reputation: 8718

For example: You have ignored the /node_modules/ folder. But you want to add a single file which you need to patch. This is the file to whitelist: /node_modules/x/y/z/file.js

Add the following TO THE END of your .gitignore file:

/**
!/node_modules
!/node_modules/x
!/node_modules/x/y
!/node_modules/x/y/z
!/node_modules/x/y/z/file.js

The first line (/**) is important - no idea how it works :-)

Upvotes: 0

VonC
VonC

Reputation: 1324228

The general rule of gitignore is simple:

It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded.

To exclude files (or all files) from a subfolder of an ignored folder build, you need to exclude the folder first, then the files:

I have tested:

**/build/
a/b/
!a/c/d/e/**/build/     <== whitelist folder first
!a/c/d/e/**/build/**   <== then the files

Upvotes: 9

Related Questions