Edit:
The detail in my question hides the true nature of the problem. However, as this is how the problem is likely to manifest to others, I've decided to keep it as is and just add this edit, and the answer below.
I am completely new to git.
I'm working on a PHP-based website and would like to track only my files:
ie only files in /plugins/my-plugins/ and /themes/my-theme/.
Having failed to get this to work I decide to create and play with a minimum working example.
According to https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore:
Example to exclude everything except a specific directory foo/bar (note the /* - without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude everything within foo/bar):
$ cat .gitignore
# exclude everything except directory foo/bar
/*
!/foo
/foo/*
!/foo/bar
So, I created files/folders to match:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ tree -a
.
|-- .gitignore
|-- README.md
|-- foo
| |-- bar
| | -- shouldNOTbeExcluded_bar.txt
| -- shouldBeExcluded_foo.txt
-- shouldBeExcluded.txt
2 directories, 4 files
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$
According to https://dzone.com/refcardz/getting-started-git:
...initialize the directory as a Git repository by typing the following commands:
git init
git add .
git commit –m 'The first commit'
Before git add.:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git status
On branch master
Initial commit
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
.gitignore
README.md
foo/
shouldBeExcluded.txt
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$
So, it's not tracking the files it shouldn't track. Which suggests it is tracking the files it should track.
So maybe I can just commit what is, apparently, being tracked:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git commit -m 'Very first commit after git init'
On branch master
Initial commit
Untracked files:
.gitignore
README.md
foo/
shouldBeExcluded.txt
nothing added to commit but untracked files present
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$
"nothing added to commit".
OK, let's add something:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git add .
And now see what happened:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git status
On branch master
Initial commit
Changes to be committed:
(use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
new file: .gitignore
new file: README.md
new file: foo/bar/shouldNOTbeExcluded_bar.txt
new file: foo/shouldBeExcluded_foo.txt
new file: shouldBeExcluded.txt
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$
Now it's planning to add everything in the next commit. Which is not what I want.
Lets' see what actually happens:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git commit -m 'Very first commit after git init'
[master (root-commit) dca0c49] Very first commit after git init
5 files changed, 37 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 .gitignore
create mode 100644 README.md
create mode 100644 foo/bar/shouldNOTbeExcluded_bar.txt
create mode 100644 foo/shouldBeExcluded_foo.txt
create mode 100644 shouldBeExcluded.txt
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$
As I suspected, everything is committed.
So, my question:
How do I get git to track and commit files according to .gitignore from the beginning?
Or am I missing something fundamental?
Is the 'correct' procedure
to commit EVERYTHING in the very first commit regardless of .gitignore,
and then git will track changes according to .gitignore from the next git add . / git commit ... onwards?
According to git add all except ignoring files in .gitignore file
I think you mean
git add .which will add all of the files to the repo that AREN'T specified in the.gitignore- you can see these changes by typinggit status
git add .
This will add all paths and ignore matches from .gitignore
Which doesn't match my experience: git add . adds ALL files and ignores .gitignore.
According to
Git add . ignores .gitignore
.gitignoreis taking into consideration only for new files.
Which does fit what I'm finding.
Further play
Immediately following the first commit:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git status
On branch master
nothing to commit, working tree clean
So I thought, maybe clearing the staging cache will fix the problem:
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git rm -r --cached .
rm '.gitignore'
rm 'README.md'
rm 'foo/bar/shouldNOTbeExcluded_bar.txt'
rm 'foo/shouldBeExcluded_foo.txt'
rm 'shouldBeExcluded.txt'
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git status
On branch master
Changes to be committed:
(use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
deleted: .gitignore
deleted: README.md
deleted: foo/bar/shouldNOTbeExcluded_bar.txt
deleted: foo/shouldBeExcluded_foo.txt
deleted: shouldBeExcluded.txt
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
.gitignore
README.md
foo/
shouldBeExcluded.txt
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git rm -r --cached .
fatal: pathspec '.' did not match any files
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git status
On branch master
Changes to be committed:
(use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
deleted: .gitignore
deleted: README.md
deleted: foo/bar/shouldNOTbeExcluded_bar.txt
deleted: foo/shouldBeExcluded_foo.txt
deleted: shouldBeExcluded.txt
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
.gitignore
README.md
foo/
shouldBeExcluded.txt
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git add .
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git commit -m 'First commit'
On branch master
nothing to commit, working tree clean
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git status
On branch master
nothing to commit, working tree clean
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ ll
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 4 alan alan 4096 Jul 3 15:08 ./
drwxr-xr-x 8 alan alan 4096 Jul 3 16:05 ../
drwxr-xr-x 8 alan alan 4096 Jul 3 17:16 .git/
-rw-r--r-- 1 alan alan 139 Jul 3 15:03 .gitignore
-rw-r--r-- 1 alan alan 588 Jul 3 14:47 README.md
drwxr-xr-x 3 alan alan 4096 Jul 3 15:09 foo/
-rw-r--r-- 1 alan alan 0 Jul 3 15:08 shouldBeExcluded.txt
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git add -f .
alan@lamp ~/GitPlay$ git status
On branch master
nothing to commit, working tree clean
So now I can't stage and commit anything.
