there are two gitignore files by default and they are not working

Question

I don't have much knowledge on .gitignore, I just know that it helps us untrack the files we don't want to commit to a repository.

In my case, I have two .gitignore files by default

first one -> inside .idea folder

second one -> inside project directory

Tried as I might, I couldn't prevent it from tracking mydb folder, .dat files, .idea folder.

This is what I get when I git status

 modified:   .gitignore
        modified:   .idea/.gitignore
        modified:   .idea/APIdesign.iml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__antlr_antlr_2_7_7.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__ch_qos_logback_logback_classic_1_2_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__ch_qos_logback_logback_core_1_2_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__com_fasterxml_classmate_1_5_1.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__com_sun_activation_jakarta_activation_1_2_2.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__com_sun_istack_istack_commons_runtime_3_0_11.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__com_zaxxer_HikariCP_3_4_5.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__jakarta_annotation_jakarta_annotation_api_1_3_5.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__jakarta_persistence_jakarta_persistence_api_2_2_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__jakarta_transaction_jakarta_transaction_api_1_3_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__jakarta_xml_bind_jakarta_xml_bind_api_2_3_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_apache_derby_derby_10_14_2_0.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_apache_logging_log4j_log4j_api_2_13_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_apache_logging_log4j_log4j_to_slf4j_2_13_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_aspectj_aspectjweaver_1_9_6.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_dom4j_dom4j_2_1_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_glassfish_jakarta_el_3_0_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_glassfish_jaxb_jaxb_runtime_2_3_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_glassfish_jaxb_txw2_2_3_3.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_hibernate_common_hibernate_commons_annotations_5_1_2_Final.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_jboss_logging_jboss_logging_3_4_1_Final.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_slf4j_jul_to_slf4j_1_7_30.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_slf4j_slf4j_api_1_7_30.xml
        modified:   .idea/libraries/Maven__org_yaml_snakeyaml_1_27.xml
        modified:   .idea/misc.xml
        modified:   mydb/db.lck
        modified:   mydb/log/log.ctrl
        modified:   mydb/log/log1.dat
        modified:   mydb/log/logmirror.ctrl
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c101.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c111.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c121.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c130.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c141.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c150.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c161.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c171.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c20.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c230.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c31.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c41.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c490.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c4a1.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c51.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c60.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c71.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c81.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/c90.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/ca1.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/cb1.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/cc0.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/cd1.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/ce1.dat
        modified:   mydb/seg0/cf0.dat
        modified:   pom.xml
        modified:   src/main/java/io/theBMan/springBootStarter/Application.java
        modified:   src/main/java/io/theBMan/springBootStarter/lecture/Lecture.java
        modified:   src/main/java/io/theBMan/springBootStarter/lecture/LectureController.java
        modified:   src/main/java/io/theBMan/springBootStarter/lecture/LectureRepository.java
        modified:   src/main/java/io/theBMan/springBootStarter/lecture/LectureService.java
        modified:   src/main/java/io/theBMan/springBootStarter/student/Student.java
        modified:   src/main/resources/application.properties

my two .gitignore files as follows

inside .idea ->

# Compiled class file
*.class

# Log file
*.log

# BlueJ files
*.ctxt

# Mobile Tools for Java (J2ME)
.mtj.tmp/

# Package Files #
*.jar
*.war
*.nar
*.ear
*.zip
*.tar.gz
*.rar
*.dat

# virtual machine crash logs, see http://www.java.com/en/download/help/error_hotspot.xml
hs_err_pid*

mydb/*
*/idea/**
.idea/

inside project root directory ->

*.class

# Log file
*.log

# BlueJ files
*.ctxt

# Mobile Tools for Java (J2ME)
.mtj.tmp/

# Package Files #
*.jar
*.war
*.nar
*.ear
*.zip
*.tar.gz
*.rar
*.dat

# virtual machine crash logs, see http://www.java.com/en/download/help/error_hotspot.xml
hs_err_pid*

mydb/*
.idea/
target/
.dat
.gitignore

I also wonder why there are two .gitignore files. If we need both, what are their uses?

Any help is appreciated

Best,

Answer 1

Since you are using a build system (maven), you can completely ignore the idea directory.

In PROJECT_ROOT/.gitignore:

/.idea
/target

(/ in .gitignore means root of your the git repo, not root of the filesystem)

Just put all your temporary files in the target directory and they will be ignored.

Maven by default will generate all your .class, .jar and test reports in your target directory.