Add files to gitignore without commiting them

Question

I have some files on my local branch that will not be changed from me in the future but they will be changed by the other developer. Currently i have to exclude these files from every push to origin.

What i want is to be able to atleast use gitignore in such a way that i add these files to gitignore and don't have to commit these files because if i commit them the staging build will crash.

I try to add them to gitignore but it asks me to commit and push which i cannot do, also because the other developer has to make changes to these files.

So, i can work with somehow not committing the gitignore file if it just take the burden of having to avoid committing 8-10 other files off my shoulders. Or maybe there is another solution in which i can tell git to ignore these files everytime when it commit? Open to a better solution.

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 05:34

You can use .git/info/exclude as a local-repo-specific version of .gitignore. For a submodule where .git is a file instead of a directory, you'll need to hut down wherever the .git file points to, then use info/exclude from there.

It's also possible to use some hacks with git update-index --assume-unchanged which is especially useful if the file does exist in the remote repo, but you want some local edits to be ignored. But it's usually better to just ship a .example file

Not sure why this answer is not popular. +1 to cleaner .git/info/exclude approach. — tom, Jun 19 '18 at 06:48

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 05:28

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You can add your .gitignore to .gitignore file! In that way, your .gitignore file won't be commited. If you use gitignore for other stuff as well, consider using local gitignore file for a directory

answered Jun 12 '15 at 05:28

Maciej Baranowski

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One advantage of this over my answer is if the `.gitignore` file is inside the directory, you can move the directory around and it will remain ignored. – o11c Jun 12 '15 at 05:36

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 08:31

I tried @exussum's solution but that was not working for me since the files were already checked in. Instead i found update-index and add files manually in ignore list.

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file_to_ignore>

This solution will not stand up against a head reset but at least ignores the files for the time being and reduces the risk of checking in unnecessary files.

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 19 '18 at 16:42

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You can add a user specific .gitignore

Can I make a user-specific gitignore file?

git config --global core.excludesfile $HOME/.gitignore

Then you can populate the .gitignore in your homedir to ignore the files

Edit: note that recent versions of git default core.excludesfile to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, i.e. $HOME/.config/git/ignore, so you should probably just use that instead of setting it to a different file.

edited Jun 19 '18 at 16:42

o11c

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answered Jun 12 '15 at 05:29

exussum

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So anything i add to that home directory gitignore will never be available to commit? – xmaestro Jun 12 '15 at 05:32
Yeah for all of your git projects but if you add a comment as to why its there you should be able to manage fairly easily – exussum Jun 12 '15 at 05:33
Usually ~/.gitignore should only be used for files that you might generate in *all* projects, such as editor backup files. – o11c Jun 12 '15 at 05:35
Where is this .gitignore placed on a Ubuntu 14? – xmaestro Jun 12 '15 at 05:35
Do i have to replace $HOME with an absolute path? – xmaestro Jun 12 '15 at 05:36
No its your home dir. Typically /home/your_username – exussum Jun 12 '15 at 05:43
So, i executed the above command and created a .gitignore file there in my user dir with some files i had changed in project dir. But i run git status it still shows modified for those files. – xmaestro Jun 12 '15 at 05:47
If they are already checked in files. They will not be ignored – exussum Jun 12 '15 at 06:26

Add files to gitignore without commiting them

4 Answers4