Is .gitignore not working or I have misunderstood it?

Question

I am very new to git. I have a .gitignore in the my working folder.

*.jpg
*.gif
*.png
system/*
*/Zend/*
.idea/*.*

Well, I did git init and then git add *. At this it worked fine and ignored the above files. But when I did some changes, ran the same command it puts the ignored files into staging area. The reason why I am using git add * is because I work on many files and adding each file would be a overkill.

Update: Here are messages when I run git add * second time..

#new file:   application/vendors/Zend/XmlRpc/Value/String.php
#new file:   application/vendors/Zend/XmlRpc/Value/Struct.php
...

The list is too long.

Could you give an example of an ignored file that has been added? — Stefan, Jul 06 '12 at 15:08
And if you are modifying too many file you can make use of git status & awk or cut to get only the modified file & add them something like `git status|grep modified|awk '{print $3}'|xargs git add`. — another.anon.coward, Jul 06 '12 at 15:16
@KurzedMetal: You are right! My bad.. Dunno what I was thinking :\ — another.anon.coward, Jul 06 '12 at 15:17
@KurzedMetal: SO i just commit with a nice message?. What does `add` do then? — Shubham, Jul 06 '12 at 15:19
That comment was meant for my comment about adding & commiting `.gitignore` file. You have to add & commit for your normal git work flow just as you have been doing. — another.anon.coward, Jul 06 '12 at 15:28
@Shubham: `git commit -a` adds+commits all tracked files that have been modified in one action. — Daenyth, Jul 06 '12 at 15:29

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:22

4

According to the information in this question:

wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname

therefore, I think the rule for the Zend directory is not correct.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:22

Community

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answered Jul 06 '12 at 15:29

madth3

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

0

git add * should complain if you have a .gitignore. See this SO question and answer. I'm not sure why it's not complaining.

Try using git add . instead as that's what you really want. Similar problem to this SO Q&A.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Community

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answered Jul 06 '12 at 15:12

embedded.kyle

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I am not sure what i could have done wrong? I checked there is no spelling mistake. Just a fact that I placed `.gitignore` also in my `.git` folder because it was not working. – Shubham Jul 06 '12 at 15:16
I've had weird issues with `.gitignore` not working on Windows before. Have you tried using `.git/info/exclude` instead? – embedded.kyle Jul 06 '12 at 15:24
Well I think I have caught the catch. The new files are getting listed via `git status` which I thought list all staged files but I think it doesn't (may be). – Shubham Jul 06 '12 at 15:27
`git status` should not be showing ignored files: http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-status.html And you really should be using `git add .` instead. – embedded.kyle Jul 06 '12 at 15:31

Is .gitignore not working or I have misunderstood it?

2 Answers2