git ignore exception

Question

I have a gitignore file that makes git ignore *.dll files, and that is actually the behavior I want. However, if I want an exception ( i.e. to be able to commit foo.dll), how can I achieve this?

possible duplicate of [Exceptions in .gitignore](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2415873/exceptions-in-gitignore) — wallyk, Feb 27 '12 at 09:26
fwiw, the granddaddy of duplicate answers on this topic--one that you should look over--would probably be [Make .gitignore ignore everything except a few files](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/987142/make-gitignore-ignore-everything-except-a-few-files) - very regular activity and several good answers. I'm a particular fan of [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/29932318/5440638), which seems clear and thorough. — Kay V, Jul 20 '18 at 00:02
Possible duplicate of [Make .gitignore ignore everything except a few files](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/987142/make-gitignore-ignore-everything-except-a-few-files) — Kay V, Jul 20 '18 at 00:04

score 610 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 08 '10 at 11:55

610

Use:

*.dll    #Exclude all dlls
!foo.dll #Except for foo.dll

From gitignore:

An optional prefix ! which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will override lower precedence patterns sources.

answered Jul 08 '10 at 11:55

Skilldrick

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See also answer form @Matiss Jurgelis - it's important addition – Dan Aug 06 '15 at 10:08
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Can I add the exception to my project's gitignore and not my global gitignore? For example, if I wanted to include all DLLs in a directory? My gitignore_global has `*.dll` in it, and my project's gitignore has `!Libs/*.dll` but that doesn't seem to be working. – Joel Kinzel Nov 10 '15 at 21:20
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@jkinz, you should try `!Libs/**/*.dll`. – Rosberg Linhares Nov 09 '16 at 20:50
@RosbergLinhares Or `!**/Libs/*.dll`, depending on the folder structure. – JAB Dec 04 '17 at 20:18
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Thanks, but on a mac adding the comment on the same line as the `!foo.dll` did invalidate the command. If I add the comment on a separate row it works. – Giacomo Mar 07 '18 at 15:18
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@Giacomo I had the same on Windows, `#` should be avoided. – Jona Dec 19 '19 at 08:28

score 378 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '13 at 14:33

378

Git ignores folders if you write:

/js

but it can't add exceptions if you do: !/js/jquery or !/js/jquery/ or !/js/jquery/*

You must write:

/js/*

and only then you can except subfolders like this

!/js/jquery

answered Feb 06 '13 at 14:33

Matiss

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However looks like you can't add nested folders, e.g. `!/js/jquery/xyzlib` will not be ignored... – Ignorant Jul 16 '17 at 13:19
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As @Ignorant says, the folder you "except" from the ignore rule, must be at the same location as the "*" – Nate Anderson Sep 29 '17 at 23:42
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so `/js/*`, `!/js/jquery`, `/js/jquery/*`, `!/js/jquery/xyzlib`? Feels like a rather funny way to do it... – Imperishable Night Nov 23 '17 at 01:47
With git 2.21 not any of those solutions work - how can they ignore this problem!!!??? – ESP32 Jul 16 '20 at 03:48
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@Ignorant for nested subfolders see https://stackoverflow.com/a/72380673/2321594 – Aidin May 25 '22 at 15:46

score 67 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 08 '10 at 11:56

67

You can simply git add -f path/to/foo.dll.

.gitignore ignores only files for usual tracking and stuff like git add .

answered Jul 08 '10 at 11:56

nocksock

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Just for more details, the `-f` tells git to force the adding of this file in the repo since it might ignore it first because of your `.gitignore` – RPDeshaies Apr 21 '16 at 18:24
1

Which is great if you only have one file, less useful if you need a pattern – Liam Aug 23 '16 at 15:46
Good to know. But still better manage all the rules in the .gitignore than not knowing some rules are defined else where, especially in a team context – Vinh Apr 04 '21 at 20:35

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered May 03 '12 at 17:13

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To exclude everything in a directory, but some sub-directories, do the following:

wp-content/*
!wp-content/plugins/
!wp-content/themes/

Source: https://gist.github.com/444295

answered May 03 '12 at 17:13

Simon Paarlberg

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But what is about one file in subdirectory? ( dir1/ , !dir1/dir2/some_file ) – Alexander Lubyagin Dec 16 '22 at 08:20

Robert Munteanu · Answer 5 · 2010-07-08T12:46:08.603

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Just add ! before an exclusion rule.

According to the gitignore man page:

Patterns have the following format:

...

An optional prefix ! which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will override lower precedence patterns sources.

edited Jul 08 '10 at 12:46

answered Jul 08 '10 at 11:55

Robert Munteanu

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score 6 · Answer 6 · answered May 25 '22 at 15:45

For Nested Folders, I came up with a solution based on Matiss's answer.

Let's say I want to ignore everything in build/ directory (which is in /app). So I do:

build/*

However, if I want to exclude build/outputs/bundle/release subfolder, I need to play some hide and seek!


/app/build/*
!/app/build/outputs
/app/build/outputs/*
!/app/build/outputs/bundle
/app/build/outputs/bundle/*
!/app/build/outputs/bundle/release

Important Notes:

All the paths should start with / and be relative to the .gitignore
You have to do it one subfolder at a time. You can see in VS Code (for instance) what it includes and what not at every step.

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 08 '10 at 11:58

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!foo.dll in .gitignore, or (every time!) git add -f foo.dll

answered Jul 08 '10 at 11:58

Tobias Kienzler

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score 5 · Answer 8 · answered May 01 '17 at 04:45

If you're working with Visual Studio and your .dll happens to be in a bin folder, then you'll need to add an exception for the particular bin folder itself, before you can add the exception for the .dll file. E.g.

!SourceCode/Solution/Project/bin
!SourceCode/Solution/Project/bin/My.dll

This is because the default Visual Studio .gitignore file includes an ignore pattern for [Bbin]/

This pattern is zapping all bin folders (and consequently their contents), which makes any attempt to include the contents redundant (since the folder itself is already ignored).

I was able to find why my file wasn't being excepted by running

git check-ignore -v -- SourceCode/Solution/Project/bin/My.dll

from a Git Bash window. This returned the [Bbin]/ pattern.

score 4 · Answer 9 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

The solution depends on the relation between the git ignore rule and the exception rule:

Files/Files at the same level: use the @Skilldrick solution.
Folders/Subfolders: use the @Matiss Jurgelis solution.

Files/Files in different levels or Files/Subfolders: you can do this:

*.suo
*.user
*.userosscache
*.sln.docstates

# ...

# Exceptions for entire subfolders
!SetupFiles/elasticsearch-5.0.0/**/*
!SetupFiles/filebeat-5.0.0-windows-x86_64/**/*

# Exceptions for files in different levels
!SetupFiles/kibana-5.0.0-windows-x86/**/*.suo
!SetupFiles/logstash-5.0.0/**/*.suo

Erfan · Answer 10 · 2020-07-22T02:05:35.293

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Since Git 2.7.0 Git will take exceptions into account. From the official release notes:

Allow a later "!/abc/def" to override an earlier "/abc" that appears in the same .gitignore file to make it easier to express "everything in /abc directory is ignored, except for ...".

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/Documentation/RelNotes/2.7.0.txt

edit: apparently this doesn't work any more since Git 2.8.0

edited Jul 22 '20 at 02:05

answered Jan 06 '16 at 01:48

Erfan

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does this work for anyone? doesn't seem to work for me. – Ankur May 03 '17 at 00:54
https://stackoverflow.com/q/53753201/125507 this was removed – endolith Jul 21 '20 at 03:30
It's not working for me on version 2.25.1. Do you happen to know a way around it ? – Philippe Apr 13 '22 at 13:32

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 29 '21 at 23:21

1

This is how I do it, with a README.md file in each directory:

/data/*
!/data/README.md

!/data/input/
/data/input/*
!/data/input/README.md

!/data/output/
/data/output/*
!/data/output/README.md

answered Jan 29 '21 at 23:21

Miladiouss

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 17 '21 at 23:13

1

If you have a directory and want to ignore everything with the exception of some files (e.g. *.py files), you can do:

sub-dir/**/*.*
!sub-dir/**/*.py

answered Sep 17 '21 at 23:13

Miladiouss

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This should be higher up. Also, you can explicitly set the deapth (not sure why you would) like so "folder/*/*" and "!folder/*/file" – Torben Nordtorp Apr 25 '23 at 13:02

git ignore exception

12 Answers12

Important Notes:

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