.gitignore not ignoring .idea path

Question

What am I missing that needs to be done in order to get git to ignore my .idea/ path?

ctote@ubuntu:~/dev/1$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)

    modified:   .idea/.name
    modified:   .idea/misc.xml
    modified:   .idea/modules.xml
    modified:   .idea/vcs.xml
    modified:   .idea/workspace.xml
    modified:   src/Receiver.java
    modified:   test/1/agent/WindowsQueryHandlerTest.java

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)

    lib/
    mp1.iml

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

ctote@ubuntu:~/dev/1$ cat .gitignore
*.class

# Package Files #
*.war
*.ear

# IDEA config files
.idea/

possible duplicate of [Ignore files that have already been committed to a Git repository](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1139762/ignore-files-that-have-already-been-committed-to-a-git-repository) — jub0bs, Sep 03 '15 at 20:29
simply the files can be ignored - any folder any file you want to ignore - go to intellij tool , right click on file/folder --> git --> add ti .gitignore file , that's it -from then onwards intellij will start ignoring these files/folder for changes — Ashish Shetkar, May 18 '20 at 05:05

Cristian Lupascu · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-03T20:12:15.533

479

.gitignore only ignores newly added (untracked) files.

If you have files that have already been added to the repository, all their changes will be tracked as usual, even if they are matched by .gitignore rules.

To remove that folder from the repository (without deleting it from disk), do:

git rm --cached -r .idea

edited Sep 03 '15 at 20:12

answered Sep 03 '15 at 20:06

Cristian Lupascu

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fatal: pathspec '.idea' did not match any files – Oliver Dixon Aug 31 '16 at 06:46
I am also getting the above fata: pathspec... error message – Solx85 Oct 01 '16 at 16:38
@iLoveUnicorns Do you have an .idea folder that's committed/staged to git? – Cristian Lupascu Oct 02 '16 at 19:21
6

LGTM, I also got the same errors as specified above, but I did force remove using `-f`. Thank you. – Srinivas Damam Mar 27 '17 at 07:14
ive been looking for this for a long time. Works. Thank! – CodeGodie Jun 15 '17 at 15:03
$ git rm --cached -r .idea fatal: pathspec '*.idea' did not match any files – Martin Erlic Aug 09 '17 at 17:51
The last argument should be the path to the `.idea` directory. If it's not at the top level of the project, you'll need to specify that - for example `git rm --cached -r util/.idea` – skwidbreth Jan 12 '20 at 15:58
2

This single sentence helps a lot: ".gitignore only ignores newly added (untracked) files. " Thank you ! for now, I realize a coworker checked in temporary files that were driving me nut ! I'll just git rm them and do a commit. – AlexD Dec 25 '20 at 23:17

score 51 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 16 '16 at 19:45

51

add .idea/ to .gitignore file

run this commands in terminal to complete mission :)

git rm -rf .idea
git commit -m "delete .idea"
git push

answered Sep 16 '16 at 19:45

Hamid Zandi

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fatal: pathspec '.idea' did not match any files – Martin Erlic Aug 09 '17 at 17:52
1

@MartinErlic please, cd project root first and run that commands – Hamid Zandi Feb 02 '21 at 06:23

score 26 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 02 '18 at 16:58

26

To remove the "fatal: pathspec '.idea' did not match any files" just use if the dir still returns as untracked:

git clean -f -d .idea

answered Sep 02 '18 at 16:58

Randomize

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6

This is the only solution that worked for me out of everything. – Josh Desmond Feb 02 '19 at 21:30
8

This deletes the folder from your file system! – Pero122 May 07 '19 at 09:11

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 27 '20 at 05:53

18

Remove the file from the repository run below command

git rm --cached .idea/

now update your gitignore file to ignore .idea folder run below command

echo '.idea' >> .gitignore

add the .gitignore file

git add .gitignore

git commit -m "Removed .idea files"

answered Dec 27 '20 at 05:53

Jasim Juwel

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8
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Start with git rm -r --cached .idea/ to avoid/solve "fatal: not removing '.idea/' recursively without -r" – Onat Korucu Feb 16 '22 at 00:14

Alex Totheroh · Answer 5 · 2020-06-16T01:27:53.127

10

For those of you getting fatal: pathspec '.idea' did not match any files:

You just have to include the full path to the .idea folder.

So first, do a git status, which should show you the path to .idea given where you currently are.

Then, include the path in the command w0lf suggested: git rm --cached -r example/path/to/.idea

edited Jun 16 '20 at 01:27

answered May 27 '17 at 03:27

Alex Totheroh

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score 8 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 30 '19 at 01:18

8

If, after following steps from other answers, you still find that your instance of git running in bash or powershell just keeps on tracking the .idea/ folder, then try this!

I discovered that Jet Brains IDE's have their own .gitignore, and run their own instance of git that will override your .gitignore settings!

What I did to fix this was to navigate to /.idea/.gitignore, and change its contents to:

/**

so as to ignore everything in the folder.

The image below shows how you can navigate to the .gitignore file from within your Jetbrains IDE.

answered Oct 30 '19 at 01:18

Josh Desmond

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This is what worked for me. I had not commited the .idea folder. – Manuel Jul 15 '22 at 20:26
This is what worked. Even after running `git clean` and adding the `.idea` folder to `.gitignore`, the files would get added back. I'm guessing due to conflicts between the two `.gitignore` files? This solution fixed that. – veesar Jan 14 '23 at 09:00

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 16 '22 at 00:31

Make changes in .gitignore file and save.
Open CMD as admin or Terminal and go to Project folder.
Run git rm -r --cached .idea/
Run git add .
Run git commit -m "chore: Rider files ignored."

For details, see how to fix gitignore

In my case, my .gitignore has those lines:

### Rider ###
# Covers JetBrains IDEs: IntelliJ, RubyMine, PhpStorm, AppCode, PyCharm, CLion, Android Studio, WebStorm and Rider
# Reference: https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206544839

# User-specific stuff
.idea/**/workspace.xml
.idea/**/tasks.xml
.idea/**/usage.statistics.xml
.idea/**/dictionaries
.idea/**/shelf

# Generated files
.idea/**/contentModel.xml
.idea/.idea.TemplateProject/.idea/indexLayout.xml

# Sensitive or high-churn files
.idea/**/dataSources/
.idea/**/dataSources.ids
.idea/**/dataSources.local.xml
.idea/**/sqlDataSources.xml
.idea/**/dynamic.xml
.idea/**/uiDesigner.xml
.idea/**/dbnavigator.xml

# Gradle
.idea/**/gradle.xml
.idea/**/libraries

# Gradle and Maven with auto-import
# When using Gradle or Maven with auto-import, you should exclude module files,
# since they will be recreated, and may cause churn.  Uncomment if using
# auto-import.
# .idea/artifacts
# .idea/compiler.xml
# .idea/jarRepositories.xml
# .idea/modules.xml
# .idea/*.iml
# .idea/modules
# *.iml
# *.ipr

# CMake
cmake-build-*/

# Mongo Explorer plugin
.idea/**/mongoSettings.xml

# File-based project format
*.iws

# IntelliJ
out/

# mpeltonen/sbt-idea plugin
.idea_modules/

# JIRA plugin
atlassian-ide-plugin.xml

# Cursive Clojure plugin
.idea/replstate.xml

# Crashlytics plugin (for Android Studio and IntelliJ)
com_crashlytics_export_strings.xml
crashlytics.properties
crashlytics-build.properties
fabric.properties

# Editor-based Rest Client
.idea/httpRequests

# Android studio 3.1+ serialized cache file
.idea/caches/build_file_checksums.ser

you are right but don't apply "git rm -r --cached " like "cache refresh". It could be dangerous for some cases. — sopehl, Feb 21 '22 at 06:32

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 17 '22 at 05:19

Well, with all the nice solutions mentioned above, none of them worked for me because here was the mistake I did. I ignored those settings during project creation itself!

There were 2 .gitignore files i failed to notice and update the project level file.

Since, I had already committed those files/paths during the project creation, they always had a delta from remote after each build command; despite being added in .gitignore.

Solution

I focussed on issue 2 and deleted those folder/directories from remote first.
Took a pull on local.
Viola! No more tracking of ignored files!

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 06 '18 at 07:08

1

To Solve Error "fatal: pathspec '.idea' did not match any files" after entering above command,

Check the path of your idea folder and its files.
For this do git status. It will list all the files as usual. Check the path of idea folder files. Mine was at ../.idea/workspace.xml. Notice the ../.idea
Modify the above suggested command in the accepted answer to git rm --cached -r ../.idea
You will then see this rm '.idea/workspace.xml' and the files will be removed.

answered Aug 06 '18 at 07:08

Gautam Mandsorwale

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@AlexTotheroh yeah seems same. Just tried to help others with the exact steps I took in my project to solve this. – Gautam Mandsorwale Aug 10 '18 at 09:55
I have the same problem here. `.gitignore` is inside the module directory not the project directory. I tried `../.idea`, however, it didn't work. It's still suggesting that I should keep track of files inside `.idea` – KareemJ May 13 '20 at 13:54

Davoud · Answer 10 · 2020-02-01T07:58:13.480

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For ignoring .idea folder and iml file types, I did the following:

edited Feb 01 '20 at 07:58

answered Feb 01 '20 at 07:09

Davoud

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Yes, moving .gitignore to the root of my project saved my day. – ShadowGames Nov 17 '21 at 09:29

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 21 '20 at 09:56

0

check this if git status still shows .idea even if .idea/* is already added in your .gitignore file

answered Dec 21 '20 at 09:56

rahul

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 20 '21 at 09:36

Tried all the above solutions here and none of them worked.

What worked for me was that I added .idea to both .gitignore files. (As of the latest update there is a separate .gitignore file inside the .idea folder)

Then I just deleted whichever files were shown in the commit message and undo'ed the delete. That seemed to clear it from the git cache.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 15 '22 at 13:58

Maybe my situation is slightly different, because my .idea directory was already staged for commit, but I just followed the advice given in the git status output to run git restore --staged <file>...:

C:\Devstuff\proj01>git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

Changes to be committed:
  (use "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage) <<< THIS HERE
        new file:   .idea/.gitignore
        new file:   .idea/proj01.iml
        new file:   .idea/modules.xml
        new file:   .idea/vcs.xml

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
        modified:   .idea/proj01.iml
        modified:   file/that/was/changed.js

So I ran:

C:\Devstuff\proj01>git restore --staged .idea/

And after that it was sorted:

C:\Devstuff\proj01>git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
        modified:   webapp/controller/Master.controller.js

.gitignore not ignoring .idea path

13 Answers13

Remove the file from the repository run below command

now update your gitignore file to ignore .idea folder run below command

add the .gitignore file

Solution

Linked