Why doesn't this ignore my files recursively?

Question

In my project's root directory there are directories like 'tools':

tools/evaluate/test/
tools/evaluate2

Under test, there are some .py and .csv files. I want to ignore all files except .py, so in my .gitignore, I have this entry:

!tools/**/*.py

I want to recursively ignore all non-python files under tools. What's wrong with that?

Have you already committed some of those non-py files previously? — BeRT2me, Sep 27 '22 at 20:14
I think you may have just forgotten a slash after the bang. Possible duplicate of [this thread](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6794717/git-ignore-certain-files-in-sub-directories-but-not-all) — JohnAlexINL, Sep 27 '22 at 20:17
`!tools/**/*.py` only means "but keep the .py files". You have to have a rule to exclude that place before it. https://github.com/kenmueller/gitignore#everything-inside-of-a-folder-except-for-some-files — zapl, Sep 27 '22 at 21:14
@BeRT2me I might have committed some csv files before, but today I added two new csv files and want to ignore them. Also, I checked the directory in remote git repository, there is only one .sh file and all others are .py files. — marlon, Sep 27 '22 at 21:43

Hannon qaoud · Answer 1 · 2022-09-27T21:47:51.940

1

if the files you are trying to ignore have been already committed, you need to remove them from the staging area as well, that's done by:

git rm --cached !tools/**/*.py

check the status:

git status

add the files you want to delete to .gitignore i assume manually, i don't know of an automatic way, then finally:

git add .gitignore
git commit -m "Remove unused files"

edited Sep 27 '22 at 21:47

answered Sep 27 '22 at 20:47

Hannon qaoud

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 27 '22 at 23:52

0

Two parts are needed here:

# Recursively ignore everything in tools that has an extension:
**/tools/**/*.*

# Except .py files recursively in tools:
!tools/**/*.py

answered Sep 27 '22 at 23:52

BeRT2me

2 Answers2