gitignore(5)
============

NAME
----
gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore

SYNOPSIS
--------
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore

DESCRIPTION
-----------

A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
Git should ignore.
Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES
below for details.

Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks
`gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):

 * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
   them.

 * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
   as the path, or in any parent directory (up to the top-level of the working
   tree), with patterns in the higher level files being overridden by those in
   lower level files down to the directory containing the file. These patterns
   match relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file.  A project normally
   includes such `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
   files generated as part of the project build.

 * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.

 * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
   variable `core.excludesFile`.

Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
be used.

 * Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
   other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want
   to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file.

 * Patterns which are
   specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared
   with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside
   the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into
   the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file.

 * Patterns which a user wants Git to
   ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by
   the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
   `core.excludesFile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`. Its default value is
   $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or
   empty, $HOME/.config/git/ignore is used instead.

The underlying Git plumbing tools, such as
'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read
`gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
files specified by command-line options.  Higher-level Git
tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
use patterns from the sources specified above.

PATTERN FORMAT
--------------

 - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
   for readability.

 - A line starting with # serves as a comment.
   Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first hash for patterns
   that begin with a hash.

 - Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash
   ("`\`").

 - An optional 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