Git ignore unignore not working?

Question

I've looked at this answer: Unignore subdirectories of ignored directories in Git

And as far as I can tell I am doing the same thing, but git refuses to unignore my directories/files.

These are my rules. I'm trying to just get the listed directories/subdirectories, but the entire public directory is not showing up.

/public/bootstrap/*
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/dist/*
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/dist/**/*
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/less/variables.less

Any ideas?

I just replicated this structure and `variables.less` was not ignored. Are you sure you don't have another `.gitignore` that might be catching it? — John Feminella, Oct 22 '14 at 19:19
Did a find in the whole project folder, and the only other .gitignore is in a different directory and just has "local" in it. — Joren, Oct 22 '14 at 19:22

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

11

You can do it as follows. The sentence "You can't unignore more than one level deep per line" is not correct. You may refer to the answer here.

/public/bootstrap/**
!/public/bootstrap/**/
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/dist/**
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/less/variables.less

edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

Community

1
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answered Oct 24 '14 at 05:29

Landys

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So if I'm reading this right, the 1st line ignores all, the 2nd line unignores all directories, the 3rd line unignores all files and directories in dist? And, if I understand right, all the folders are now unignored, but since the files in the non-dist one are ignored, git won't do anything with them? – Joren Oct 24 '14 at 18:41

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 22 '14 at 21:30

After doing some reading and a LOT of trial and error, this works:

/public/bootstrap/bower_components/jquery
/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/**
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/dist/
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/dist/**
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/less/
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/less/variables.less

The issue seems to be this line in the docs: "It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded."

This seems to directly contradict other answers, but appears to be how it works for me.

In my testing I found if you ignore like this:

/public/bootstrap/*

You can't unignore more than one level deep per line.

# doesn't work
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/

# works
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/
!/public/bootstrap/bower_components/bootstrap/

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 18 '18 at 19:46

A command line that helps testing if you got it right: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-check-ignore

The following CLI:

git check-ignore -v .idea/bbb.txt .idea/workspace.xml .idea/runConfigurations/Android_Debug___ReactNative.xml android/.idea/aaaa.txt android/.idea/runConfigurations/app.xml

Outputs the following:

.gitignore:33:**/.idea/**   .idea/bbb.txt
.gitignore:33:**/.idea/**   .idea/workspace.xml
.gitignore:35:!**/.idea/runConfigurations/* .idea/runConfigurations/Android_Debug___ReactNative.xml
.gitignore:33:**/.idea/**   android/.idea/aaaa.txt
.gitignore:35:!**/.idea/runConfigurations/* android/.idea/runConfigurations/app.xml

Pay attention that the 3rd and 5th lines are successfully un-ignored (watch for the "!" sign).

My .gitignore file:

**/.idea/**
!**/.idea/runConfigurations/
!**/.idea/runConfigurations/*

Git ignore unignore not working?

3 Answers3