Add files to Git in an ignored directory

Question

I am trying to include a couple of files which are in an ignored directory, but get the following. How do I include them? Thank you

[Michael@devserver bidjunction]$ git add html/about-us.html
The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files:
html/about-us.html
Use -f if you really want to add them.
fatal: no files added
[Michael@devserver bidjunction]$

My .gitignore file

[Michael@devserver bidjunction]$ cat .gitignore
/html/
/ayb_cache/
/ayb_resources/

#Some cache files in the main application
/ayb_application/lib/plugins/tinymce_plugins/imageManager/cache/
/ayb_application/lib/plugins/tinymce_plugins/image_purchased/cache/
/ayb_application/lib/plugins_3rd/tinymce_4.0.6/plugins/image/cache/

# Temp files often created by editors
*.~

# Track some files in html directory
!/html/css/
!/html/images/
!/html/scripts/
!/html/about-us.html
!/html/corporate.php
!/html/index.html
!/html/muse_manifest.xml
!/html/terms-and-conditions.html
[Michael@devserver bidjunction]$

You can `git add --force yourFile` to force a file to be added to git regardless of `.gitignore`. — Seiyria, May 04 '14 at 02:13
@Seiyria. Yes, I saw the response, but wondered why I was doing something that required a force. — user1032531, May 04 '14 at 02:20
You are ignoring the html directory. Is this really that surprising? — FDinoff, May 04 '14 at 02:33
The first line should be `/html/*` See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5533050/gitignore-exclude-folder-but-include-specific-subfolder — Shawn Balestracci, May 04 '14 at 02:33
@ShawnBalestracci. Thank you. I read other similar SO posts, but this one hit home. — user1032531, May 04 '14 at 02:38
That should be easier to do with git 2.8 (March 2016). See [my edited answer below](http://stackoverflow.com/a/23454246/6309) — VonC, Feb 27 '16 at 21:43

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

Shawn Balestracci mentioned (in the comments) ".gitignore exclude folder but include specific subfolder", which illustrated what I mentioned in this answer:

It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded. (*)
(*: unless certain conditions are met in git 2.?, see below)

(A message introduced with git 1.9.x)

If you exclude html/*, you are excluding content, not the folder itself, allowing the !xxx rules to apply.

Note that to check at all time why a particular file is ignored, you can type:

git check-ignore -v -- html/about-us.html

That will give you the exact line of your .gitignore file which is the cause of your git add not working.

Note that with git 2.9.x/2.10 (mid 2016?), it might be possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded if there is no wildcard in the path re-included.

Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy (pclouds) is trying to add this feature:

commit 506d8f1 for git v2.7.0, reverted in commit 76b620d git v2.8.0-rc0
commit 5e57f9c git v2.8.0-rc0,... reverted(!) in commit 5cee3493 git 2.8.0-rc4.

In your case, what could work (with git 2.?+) would have be:

/html
!/html/css
!/html/images
!/html/scripts
!/html/about-us.html
!/html/corporate.php
!/html/index.html
!/html/muse_manifest.xml
!/html/terms-and-conditions.html

thank you for that `/*` which was the key! – Adarsha May 05 '23 at 03:38 — Adarsha, May 05 '23 at 03:38

Add files to Git in an ignored directory

1 Answers1