gitignore everything except specific files

Question

I've been reading on Stack Overflow about using gitignore to ignore everything except specific files. I've tried a bunch of different suggestions, but I can't get it to work for me.

Here's what I'm trying to do: I want to exclude everything except one file in my main directory and a couple other files in the subdirectory. So, I want only these files:

flightsofideas.rb
/FlightsOfIdeas/svgExportTools.rb
/FlightsOfIdeas/svgExport.rb

My latest version of gitignore is:

*    
!flightsofideas.rb
!/FlightsOfIdeas/svgExportTools.rb
!/FlightsOfIdeas/svgExport.rb

But git only includes flightsofideas.rb, it doesn't get the files in the subdirectory.

what does `git check-ignore -v -- FlightsOfIdeas/svgExport.rb` returns? (and what git version are you using?) — VonC, Apr 06 '14 at 16:23
Maybe this is because of http://stackoverflow.com/a/21643672/6309? — VonC, Apr 06 '14 at 16:24
It returns this: .gitignore:5:* FlightsOfIdeas/svgExport.rb. My Git version is: git version 1.8.5.2 (Apple Git-48) — Scott Goldthwaite, Apr 06 '14 at 20:56
Can't you use a wildcard or something? That'd be a really nice feature of Git. — William, Sep 20 '14 at 13:33

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

2

You should add !*/ not to ignore the directories, or it will not look into the directories to include back files.

Still similar problem as What's the difference between Git ignoring directory and directory/*?.

*
!*/
!/flightsofideas.rb
!/FlightsOfIdeas/svgExportTools.rb
!/FlightsOfIdeas/svgExport.rb

edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Community

1
1

answered Sep 20 '14 at 12:46

Landys

7,169
3
25
34

gitignore everything except specific files

1 Answers1

Linked