- An optional prefix "`!`" which negates the pattern; any
matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become
- included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will
- override lower precedence patterns sources.
+ 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 second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring
`arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
+Example to exclude everything except a specific directory `foo/bar`
+(note the `/*` - without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude
+everything within `foo/bar`):
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+ $ cat .gitignore
+ # exclude everything except directory foo/bar
+ /*
+ !/foo
+ /foo/*
+ !/foo/bar
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
SEE ALSO
--------
linkgit:git-rm[1],