git-ignore doesn't ignoring node_modules

Question

I include node_modules in gitignore but still github desktop suggest changes to push.

Answer 1

If you have added node_modules/ to your .gitignore file at a moment where your existing directory was already tracked in git, you need one extra step to make git "forget" about this directory:

git rm --cached -r node_modules/
git commit

Answer 2

I have also faced same issue some time back. In my case after, updated the .gitignore after making commit into repo. So below are the steps i have followed up to resolve same -

Step 1 - Commit all your changes into repo.

Step 2 - Refresh your git repository index by running below command. git rm -r --cached Step 3 - Add everything back using git add .

Step 4 - Finally commit your changes like git commit -m ".gitignore fix"

Now you won't see node_modules coming into changes.

Answer 3

It looks like you have already added some files from node_modules folder in your repo (otherwise the color of the node_modules folder would be green instead of brown)

You can look which files are tracked in your repo using this

git ls-tree --full-tree --name-only -r HEAD

And you can remove a directory from git using this

git rm -r --cached node_modules

And don't forget to commit changes after that.

git add .
git commit -m "remove node_modules folder"