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I have a web project the root of which is the root of my git repo. Git is tracking most of the files in this project and pushing to a remote repo. At the root of the project I have a web.config file which I would like to track locally but not push to our remote repo.

Is this even possible with git?

LeRoy
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4 Answers4

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One way would be to add a virtual reference with Gitolite installed on the Git upstream repo side (the one you are pushing to).

That kind of update hook can analyze the content of the files which are push to and reject a push if it contains the wrong file.
The VREF FILETYPE is an example.

VonC
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  • I will actually be pushing to bitbucket so I don't know if this is an option. – LeRoy Nov 01 '12 at 20:47
  • @LeRoy it can be an option if you push to an *intermediate* repository which will reject any wrong content, and, if not rejected, will push automatically to your actual final upstream repo (the BitBucket one). – VonC Nov 01 '12 at 20:51
  • Thanks for the suggestion. I am not in a place to add an intermediary step. It does sounds like a good solution. – LeRoy Nov 06 '12 at 17:39
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This is possible, just create a file in the root of your project, and name it .gitignore (don't forget the Dot (.) in front of the file name). Then edit the file and paste whatever file you want to be ignored, for example, I like to ignore all files that have .ini extensions, so my .gitignore looks like :

<<<<<<< HEAD
# built application files
*.ini
>>>>>>>
Jesse
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timmz
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  • Turns out this method will not work. In order for gitignore to ignore Web.Config changes, it cannot exist in the Repo. So, you cannot have checked in a Web.Config as you like it into the Repo, then gitignore changes moving forward. If you want to add Web.config to the gitignore, you have to also delete it from the repo, and that opens an entire new can of worms. – Suamere Apr 23 '17 at 16:18
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You could create a separate branch (I'll call it config) and add your file there and use that branch to track changes to that file, merging in changes from your another branch (likely master). You would then be free to push changes to the master branch without needing to push the config file. But you would need to be careful to avoid pushing from the wrong branch.

Another option might be to commit changes to the config file in a separate repository, and have a symlink or copy in the working tree for your current repository. Adding that to the .gitignore file would prevent git in the current repository from listing that as something to be added. This way would be less likely to result in accidentally pushing that file to your server.

qqx
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  • More and more it is looking like I will need to use a separate repository. This would allow me to track all of my config files from our different servers in one place. – LeRoy Nov 01 '12 at 20:47
  • At the time a person is considering this question, people like LeRoy just have to be careful to avoid pushing the file (such as web.config) when checking in. This answer literally does the same thing but moves that worry to just another step in the process, as well as adding steps to have to consider. This doesn't apply a solution, nor does it simplify things. – Suamere Apr 23 '17 at 15:57
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VonC's answer is theoretically the best, assuming you can find a tool that can do the job for you based on the git repo of your flavor.

Mohamed is on to something, but didn't quite get there.

I copied the best bet from nasirkhan on this question

After your file is production-ready, e.g.: Web.config, run this command:

git update-index --assume-unchanged Web.config

If you need to update the web config again (Track Changes), run this: 

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged Web.config

git-update-index documentation

Community
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Suamere
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