.gitignore exclude folder with files but include subdirectory

Question

I have folders like so:

/foo/one.txt
/foo/bar/two.txt
/foo/other/three.txt

I want to exclude everything in the folder /foo/ except the subfolder /foo/bar/. How do I do that?

With this .gitignore I've managed to exclude the "other" subfolder, but the file "one.txt" is still included.

/foo/*
!/foo/bar/

What you've done works as you wanted for me. – CB Bailey Sep 02 '11 at 14:34 — CB Bailey, Sep 02 '11 at 14:34

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 02 '11 at 14:43

Like Charles Bailey said in the comments section, your code works:

$ cat .gitignore 
/foo/*
!/foo/bar/

$ git status
# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   .gitignore
#   foo/
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
$ git add foo/ -n
add 'foo/bar/two.txt'
$

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

0

It may be that while the .gitignore is now working you are suffering from the common problem of needing to remove a tracked file from the index that is now in gitignore e.g. why-git-doesnt-ignore-my-specified-file

That is, use git rm <file> to remove / make sure it is not in the index.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

Community

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answered Sep 02 '11 at 21:05

Philip Oakley

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Thank you. It was in the index. Stupid of me to not actually check my own example :) – exstral Sep 02 '11 at 23:28

.gitignore exclude folder with files but include subdirectory

2 Answers2