- 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.
+ included again.
Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns
that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`".
+ It is possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that
+ file is excluded if certain conditions are met. See section NOTES
+ for detail.
- If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
purpose of the following description, but it would only find
To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use
'git rm --cached'.
+To re-include files or directories when their parent directory is
+excluded, the following conditions must be met:
+
+ - The rules to exclude a directory and re-include a subset back must
+ be in the same .gitignore file.
+
+ - The directory part in the re-include rules must be literal (i.e. no
+ wildcards)
+
+ - The rules to exclude the parent directory must not end with a
+ trailing slash.
+
+ - The rules to exclude the parent directory must have at least one
+ slash.
+
EXAMPLES
--------