Why Git suggest "changes" to me on a (theoretically) ignored file (path)?

Question

I'm using VS2015 GitHub extension, on a repositary I own (forked, really). Within the .gitignore file at some point I've this (taken from the fork, I didn't add myself that ignore):

...

VST3_SDK/*

...

but on VS2015 it seems to suggest a file within that folder has been "edited", and need to be staged:

I don't want this of course. These files/path should be "ignored" from versioning.

Where am I wrong?

EDIT: I don't want "workaround" to ignore it. I don't want to git it anymore...

Did you add the excluding pattern to your `.gitignore` _after_ this file was already in the repository? — Tim Biegeleisen, Mar 10 '17 at 08:06
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) — Tim Biegeleisen, Mar 10 '17 at 08:09
@TimBiegeleisen: no its not the same. Check the answer below... — markzzz, Mar 10 '17 at 09:20
(after reading answers and comments) : have you tried `git reset VST3_SDK` ? — LeGEC, Mar 21 '17 at 08:26
You might want to check whether the problem is within `git` by running `git check-ignore -v `. If that outputs something, the problem is not within `git`, if it doesn't report the file as ignored, you should check why it cannot match the file with your `.gitignore` pattern. — cmaster - reinstate monica, Mar 21 '17 at 10:01
Btw: Where is your .gitignore file located relative to the VST3_SDK directory? — cmaster - reinstate monica, Mar 21 '17 at 10:02

Nils Werner · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-22T07:24:35.810

8

It seems the file was committed once (maybe before it was ignored, maybe someone forced Git to start tracking it).

You can remove the file from Git (but not your harddrive) using

git rm --cached VST3_SDT/base/win/base_vc10.vcxproj.user

Afterwards, instead of "modified" the file will appear as "deleted". This is expected and should be committed (this commit will fix the issue for all other developers on this project, too). Afterwards Git will ignore the file for you and everybody else.

edited Mar 22 '17 at 07:24

answered Mar 10 '17 at 08:07

Nils Werner

34,832
7
76
98

it says `fatal: VST3_SDK\base\win\base_vc10.vcxproj.user is outside repository` – markzzz Mar 10 '17 at 08:19
Umm... can you post the git root path, and the path of the offending file? – Nils Werner Mar 10 '17 at 08:27
The "offending" file its not on the repository, since I don't want to stage it :) – markzzz Mar 10 '17 at 08:53
Ah so it wasn't tracked before. Can you try changing the `.gitignore` line to `VST3_SDK/**`? – Nils Werner Mar 10 '17 at 09:01
Tried right now! Nothing change, visual studio still tell me the file has changed :( – markzzz Mar 10 '17 at 09:06

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '17 at 14:45

6

.gitignore works for files that are not part of the project yet. If a file is already part of the project (it is part of HEAD already) then .the file being part of .gitignore does not matter. If this file is already part of the project and you still don't want to see it as modified (weird, but possible) then you have to use git update-index to tell git to just not care about it.

answered Mar 15 '17 at 14:45

eftshift0

26,375
3
36
60

Thinking about it, I'm wondering if libgit2 (the library used by VS's implementation of git, right?) actually resembles native git's behavior (which is what I described on my comment). – eftshift0 Mar 15 '17 at 14:53
So what should I do? – markzzz Mar 17 '17 at 14:25
1

If the file is already _in_ the project but you actually don't care if the file changes, then ask git to not care about it: git update-index --assume-unchanged blah/blah/blah.txt That should be enough. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-update-index – eftshift0 Mar 17 '17 at 14:47
Uhm, that's a workaround! I don't want to "ignore it", but remove it from gitting... – markzzz Mar 21 '17 at 09:42
Well... you could then ```git rm --cache``` it so that it goes away from git (while still keeping it on your working tree.... and if it's in git ignore git won't tell you anything about it after you commit it)... or you could go back in history and rewrite the history so that the file is not on any previous commit. – eftshift0 Mar 21 '17 at 14:58

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 21 '17 at 16:18

0

You ignore directories and everything inside/below them like this:

VST3_SDK/

Do not use * at the end.

answered Mar 21 '17 at 16:18

kriegaex

63,017
15
111
202

codemacabre · Answer 4 · 2017-03-21T12:00:16.223

There is a bug in VS2015 (and VS2013) which causes some .gitignore rules to not be adhered to.

Solution 1:

Try searching for the file .git\ms-persist.xml within your solution directory and deleting it (you may have to ensure you can see hidden files and folders). Once you restart Visual Studio, it will re-read your .gitignore (regenerating ms-persist.xml) and should stop tracking the ignored file(s).

Solution 2 Workaround:

If this doesn't solve your problem, the next step would be to explicitly declare the file you don't want tracked in your .gitignore:

...
VST3_SDK/*
VST3_SDK/base/win/base_vc10.vcxproj.user
...

Solution 1 doesn't works! Solution 2 is not a solution, but a workaround. — markzzz, Mar 21 '17 at 09:42

Why Git suggest "changes" to me on a (theoretically) ignored file (path)?

4 Answers4

Solution 1:

Solution 2 Workaround: