Git Ignore Pattern Format and Configuration

prefix "`!`" which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded. Git doesn't list excluded directories for performance reasons, so any patterns on contained files have no effect, no matter where they are defined. Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`". - The slash "`/`" is used as the directory separator. Separators may occur at the beginning, middle or end of the `.gitignore` search pattern. - If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the particular `.gitignore` file itself. Otherwise the pattern may also match at any level below the `.gitignore` level. - If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both files and directories. - For example, a pattern `doc/frotz/` matches `doc/frotz` directory, but not `a/doc/frotz` directory; however `frotz/` matches `frotz` and `a/frotz` that is a directory (all paths are relative from the `.gitignore` file). - An asterisk "`*`" matches anything except a slash. The character "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`". The range notation, e.g. `[a-zA-Z]`, can be used to match one of the characters in a range. See fnmatch(3) and the FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed description. Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against full pathname may have special meaning: - A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "`**/foo/bar`" matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly under directory "`foo`". - A trailing "`/**`" matches everything inside. For example, "`abc/**`" matches all files inside directory "`abc`", relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth. - A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash matches zero or more directories. For example, "`a/**/b`" matches "`a/b`", "`a/x/b`", "`a/x/y/b`" and so on. - Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and will match according to the previous rules. CONFIGURATION ------------- The optional configuration variable `core.excludesFile` indicates a path to a file containing patterns of file names to exclude, similar to `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to those in `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. NOTES ----- The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not tracked by Git remain untracked. To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use 'git rm --cached'

The gitignore pattern format allows for various characters and syntax to specify files and directories to ignore, including negation, directory separators, and wildcards, with additional configuration options available through the core.excludesFile variable.