Git Track File Existance Only, Not File Contents

Question

Is there any way to tell Git to track a file's existence, but not to track the content of the file? I would like Git to create a file if it doesn't already exist when git pull is run, but to otherwise ignore the file.

This would be highly useful for error_logs ect in a web-app I am developing.

Answer 1

A native way to do this (beside git-annex) is to:

• track a file template
• version a script which is able, on checkout, to generate the file from the file template (if the file doesn't exist yet): that file won't be versioned and will remain private.
  The script knows how to generate that file or from where to copy it.
• declare in a .gitattribute file a content filter driver: a smudge script which will run automatically on checkout and will reference the script mentioned in the previous point.

^{(image from "Customizing Git Attributes" " from the Git Book)}