📌 What is gitignore

Note

A gitignore file specifies intentionally untracked files that Git should ignore. Files already tracked by Git are not affected.

✨ When you use it

• Ignore build or runtime output directories like dist/, build/, or target/
• Ignore dependency folders like node_modules/
• Ignore log files like *.log or logs/
• Ignore local or sensitive environment files like .env and .env.local
• Ignore IDE or editor configuration folders like .idea/ and .vscode/

🪄 Patterns

Pattern	Matches	Not Match	Explanation
foo.*	foo.txt a/foo.gz a/b/c/foo.xml		Ignores any file in any directory that starts with foo. regardless of the extension.
/foo.*	/foo.txt /foo.gz	a/foo.txt a/b/foo.log	Ignores any file starting with foo. only if it is located in the root directory of your project.
foo/			Ignores an entire directory named foo and everything inside it.
foo/*	/foo.txt /foo.gz	a/foo.txt a/b/foo.log	Ignores everything inside the directory foo
foo/*/a.txt	foo/a/a.txt foo/b/a.txt	foo/a.txt foo/a/b/a.txt	Ignores a.txt exactly one level deep.
!foo/a.txt			Un-ignore a.txt directly under foo/
foo/**/a.txt	foo/a.txt foo/a/b/c/a.txt		Ignores a.txt at any depth inside foo.
!foo/**/a.txt			Un-ignore a.txt in any subdirectory under foo/ (recursive)

Patterns

🚀 Configuration

1️⃣ Manual Configuration

The .gitignore file is usually placed in the project root, alongside the .git folder and README.md.

GearPress

GearPress

.gitignore

README.md

GearPress/.gitignore

### Intellij+all Patch ###
# Ignore everything but code style settings and run configurations
# that are supposed to be shared within teams.

.idea/*

!.idea/codeStyles
!.idea/runConfigurations

### macOS ###
.DS_Store
.AppleDouble
logs
*.log

GearPress/README.md

This is a README markdown file.

2️⃣ Online Generator

My commonly Used Tags:

• 🖥️ OS: Linux、macOS、Windows
• 🛠️ IDEs: Intellij+all、VisualStudioCode
• 📦 Build: Node、Maven、Java

👉 Create on gitignore.io

3️⃣ API

The gitignore.io API allows you to programmatically generate .gitignore

⚡ GET Templates

https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/linux,windows,macos

🔗 Endpoints (tags are case-insensitive)

https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/{tags}

Get all supported template tags.

🧾 JSON Format

https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/list?format=json

Click to see more about JSON Format response

"docfx": {
    "contents": "\n### DocFx ###\n.cache\n/**/_site/\n",
    "fileName": "DocFx.gitignore",
    "key": "docfx",
    "name": "DocFx"
},
"visualstudiocode": {
    "contents": "\n### VisualStudioCode ###\n.vscode/*\n!.vscode/settings.json\n!.vscode/tasks.json\n!.vscode/launch.json\n!.vscode/extensions.json\n!.vscode/*.code-snippets\n\n# Local History for Visual Studio Code\n.history/\n\n# Built Visual Studio Code Extensions\n*.vsix\n\n### VisualStudioCode Patch ###\n# Ignore all local history of files\n.history\n.ionide\n",
    "fileName": "VisualStudioCode.gitignore",
    "key": "visualstudiocode",
    "name": "VisualStudioCode"
},
"phpstorm+iml": {
    "contents": "\n### PhpStorm+iml ###\n# Covers JetBrains IDEs: IntelliJ, RubyMine, PhpStorm, AppCode, PyCharm, CLion, Android Studio, WebStorm and Rider\n# Reference: https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206544839\n\n# User-specific stuff\n.idea/**/workspace.xml\n.idea/**/tasks.xml\n.idea/**/usage.statistics.xml\n.idea/**/dictionaries\n.idea/**/shelf\n\n# AWS User-specific\n.idea/**/aws.xml\n\n# Generated files\n.idea/**/contentModel.xml\n\n# Sensitive or high-churn files\n.idea/**/dataSources/\n.idea/**/dataSources.ids\n.idea/**/dataSources.local.xml\n.idea/**/sqlDataSources.xml\n.idea/**/dynamic.xml\n.idea/**/uiDesigner.xml\n.idea/**/dbnavigator.xml\n\n# Gradle\n.idea/**/gradle.xml\n.idea/**/libraries\n\n# Gradle and Maven with auto-import\n# When using Gradle or Maven with auto-import, you should exclude module files,\n# since they will be recreated, and may cause churn.  Uncomment if using\n# auto-import.\n# .idea/artifacts\n# .idea/compiler.xml\n# .idea/jarRepositories.xml\n# .idea/modules.xml\n# .idea/*.iml\n# .idea/modules\n# *.iml\n# *.ipr\n\n# CMake\ncmake-build-*/\n\n# Mongo Explorer plugin\n.idea/**/mongoSettings.xml\n\n# File-based project format\n*.iws\n\n# IntelliJ\nout/\n\n# mpeltonen/sbt-idea plugin\n.idea_modules/\n\n# JIRA plugin\natlassian-ide-plugin.xml\n\n# Cursive Clojure plugin\n.idea/replstate.xml\n\n# SonarLint plugin\n.idea/sonarlint/\n\n# Crashlytics plugin (for Android Studio and IntelliJ)\ncom_crashlytics_export_strings.xml\ncrashlytics.properties\ncrashlytics-build.properties\nfabric.properties\n\n# Editor-based Rest Client\n.idea/httpRequests\n\n# Android studio 3.1+ serialized cache file\n.idea/caches/build_file_checksums.ser\n\n### PhpStorm+iml Patch ###\n# Reason: https://github.com/joeblau/gitignore.io/issues/186#issuecomment-249601023\n\n*.iml\nmodules.xml\n.idea/misc.xml\n*.ipr\n",
    "fileName": "PhpStorm+iml.gitignore",
    "key": "phpstorm+iml",
    "name": "PhpStorm+iml"
},
"inforcms": {
    "contents": "\n### InforCMS ###\n# gitignore template for InforCRM (formerly SalesLogix)\n# website: https://www.infor.com/product-summary/cx/infor-crm/\n#\n# Recommended: VisualStudio.gitignore\n\n# Ignore model files that are auto-generated\nModelIndex.xml\nExportedFiles.xml\n\n# Ignore deployment files\n[Mm]odel/[Dd]eployment\n\n# Force include portal SupportFiles\n!Model/Portal/*/SupportFiles/[Bb]in/\n!Model/Portal/PortalTemplates/*/SupportFiles/[Bb]in\n",
    "fileName": "InforCMS.gitignore",
    "key": "inforcms",
    "name": "InforCMS"
},
...

Field	Type	Description
fileName	String	Output .gitignore file name
key	String	Template identifier (tag)
name	String	Template name
contents	String	Generated .gitignore content

Response Object

📄 Lines Format

https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/list?format=lines

Click to see more about Lines Format response

1c
1c-bitrix
a-frame
actionscript
ada
adobe
advancedinstaller
adventuregamestudio
agda
al
...

📚 Notes

1️⃣ Committing ignored files

Use git add -f (or --force) to include ignored files.

git add -f debug.log

2️⃣ Differences between foo/, foo/* and foo/**

Important

• foo/: Ignore the entire directory
• foo/*: Ignore everything inside the directory foo
• foo/**: Ignore everything under the directory (recursive, often used with ! for exceptions)

Changelog

5/7/26, 2:43 AM

View All Changelog

• e9294-docs(gitignore): 📝 add tags and fix some texton 5/7/26
• f251a-docs(gitignore): 📝 add gitignore noteson 5/7/26

Copyright

Copyright Ownership:EmirioBomb

License under:Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0)

Contributors: EmirioBomb

Previous pageCheat Sheet