.gitignore does not work - file is still being tracked

Question

I've a .gitignore file at the root of my repo. The .gitignore file has the following pattern to exclude the compiled Python files and that is the only line in the file.

*.pyc

Now when i do the following at the root of the repo.

git init
git add . 
git status

It shows that it still tracks the .pyc file and tries to add it as new file. See output below.

System info: Windows 7, cygwin

Note: This issue is CLEARLY not about the ignored file being already tracked. I also tried both DOS- and Unix-style line endings on the .gitignore file.

git status gives:

# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   new file:   .gitignore
#   new file:   feedapp/__init__.py
#   new file:   feedapp/appconfig.py
#   new file:   feedapp/appconfig.pyc

How do I troubleshoot this further?

was the .gitignore file in place and populated before your git add .? — freespace, Jun 17 '11 at 00:46
What do you get from `git rm --cached -r . ; git add . ; git status` — ikegami, Jun 17 '11 at 00:58
Do you have any whitespace at the end of the line containing `*.pyc` in your `.gitignore` file? I've just done a little test and it seems to be significant. — matt, Jun 17 '11 at 02:07
matt: you are right. it had something to do with line ending. — Gnu Engineer, Jun 17 '11 at 02:23
refer to below post, it works fine to me: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1139762/gitignore-file-not-ignoring — johnnyma, Sep 04 '12 at 07:23

score 143 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

143

.gitignore only applies to untracked files. If you are tracking a .pyc then .gitignore won't apply. Remove the .pyc with git rm and next time you do a git status it (and any others) won't show up in the list of untracked file and nor will it be automatically added.

Otherwise if you need to ignore a file already under version control, update the index to ignore changes to files already under version control:

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

For more information please see git-update-index(1) Manual Page, the related answer to .gitignore file not ignoring and the related answer to question (GIT: Ignoring Version-Controlled Files).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Jun 17 '11 at 00:40

freespace

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These files are not tracked yet.... – Gnu Engineer Jun 17 '11 at 00:46
According to your 'git status' output, they are. – Patrick Linskey Jun 17 '11 at 00:51
What you mean they are tracked? I see that they are 'new file' – Gnu Engineer Jun 17 '11 at 00:59
2

@Gnu Engineer, They are tracked. They are in the index, a staging area created by `git add`. Whether they were placed there before `.gitignore` was created or not is unknowable. – ikegami Jun 17 '11 at 01:04
Just to be clear, if `appconfig.pyc` wasn't already in the index from an earlier `git add`, `git add .` should have ignored it. – ikegami Jun 17 '11 at 01:11
2

ikegami: Problem is resolved. It seems to due to with the format of the line ending. I had created the .gitignore with an editor and later recreated via echo. I did a d2u now and it worked it. Thanks for your help. – Gnu Engineer Jun 17 '11 at 01:23
1

Thanks! Did not know of the git update-index - really useful! – anthonymonori Mar 04 '16 at 09:42

ikegami · Answer 2 · 2020-11-12T19:07:16.967

34

man gitignore:

A gitignore file specifies intentionally **untracked files** that git should ignore. Note that all the gitignore files really concern only files that are not already tracked by git

git rm file will stop tracking them. I can't find a way to remove all ignored files from the repo.

As you point out, the files don't appear to already exist in the repo. In that case, your git's behaviour matches neither the documentation or the behaviour of mine, and I can't help you.

$ mkdir foo
$ cd foo
/home/ikegami/foo
$ mkdir feedapp
$ touch feedapp/__init__.py
$ touch feedapp/appconfig.py
$ touch feedapp/appconfig.pyc
$ echo '*.pyc' > .gitignore
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/ikegami/foo/.git/
$ git add .
$ git status
# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
#
#       new file:   .gitignore
#       new file:   feedapp/__init__.py
#       new file:   feedapp/appconfig.py
#
$

Perhaps you did

git init
git add .
echo '*.pmc' >> .gitignore
git init
git add .

in which case you can fix the problem using

git rm --cached -r .
git add .

edited Nov 12 '20 at 19:07

answered Jun 17 '11 at 00:46

ikegami

367,544
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My understanding is that the git is not tracking any files in repo yet. I'm trying to do an initial commit ignoring the *.pyc files. – Gnu Engineer Jun 17 '11 at 00:49
ikegami: I've the same conclusion as yours. All along i've done this several times before. I suspect this has something to do with cygwin but yet this is a very simple pattern that it has to support.... – Gnu Engineer Jun 17 '11 at 00:58
@Gnu Engineer, I use git over cygwin at home. I'll try it there later. For now, I added a possible cause and solution to the bottom of my answer. – ikegami Jun 17 '11 at 01:02
2

be cautioned when using `git rm --cached -r .` it actually removes everything on current directory – HappyCoding Mar 01 '16 at 08:20

score 17 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 06 '19 at 19:21

17

I had the exact same problem. I found out that running "someText" > .gitignore made a file with a weird encoding. I changed it to UTF-8, then all worked fine.

edited Mar 06 '19 at 19:21

Connor Low

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answered Jul 13 '12 at 20:21

user1018882

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1

Also make sure there is no BOM! (Byte order mark) – Mark Jul 20 '13 at 03:53

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered May 04 '12 at 05:14

I have had exactly the same problem--even if I prepare a .gitignore file before the first time I add anything. And I found the problem was in the blank space in my ignore file. DO NOT add any white space in your ignore file and try again. I think everything will just work fine. Good luck

Justin · Answer 5 · 2013-05-10T11:51:15.567

5

Check the line endings on your .gitignore file. In an OS X repo, mine was using CR line endings. Everything worked again after switching over to LFs.

perl -p -e 's/\r/\n/g'  < .gitignore > .gitignore-new
mv .gitignore-new .gitignore

Console jockeys will likely want to use sed instead.

Background: I had copied my working copy from a Windows repository after a power failure.

edited May 10 '13 at 11:51

answered May 10 '13 at 02:54

Justin

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Same for me. If you are using `vim`, do `:set ff=unix`. For some reason it was set to `mac`. – FelikZ Jun 15 '15 at 11:13

.gitignore does not work - file is still being tracked

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