A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
git should ignore.
-Note that all the `gitignore` files really concern only files
-that are not already tracked by git;
-in order to ignore uncommitted changes in already tracked files,
-please refer to the 'git update-index --assume-unchanged'
-documentation.
+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
tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
use patterns from the sources specified above.
-Patterns have the following format:
+PATTERN FORMAT
+--------------
- A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
for readability.
- If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
- pathname without leading directories.
+ pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
+ (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
+ `.gitignore` file).
- Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable
for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
- For example, "Documentation/\*.html" matches
- "Documentation/git.html" but not
- "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html". A leading slash matches the
- beginning of the pathname; for example, "/*.c" matches
- "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
+ For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
+ "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
+ or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
-An example:
+ - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
+ For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
+ "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
+
+NOTES
+-----
+
+The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files
+not tracked by git remain untracked.
+
+To ignore uncommitted changes in a file that is already tracked,
+use 'git update-index {litdd}assume-unchanged'.
+
+To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use
+'git rm --cached'.
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
--------------------------------------------------------------
$ git status
The second .gitignore prevents git from ignoring
`arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
-Documentation
--------------
-Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett,
-Frank Lichtenheld, and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+linkgit:git-rm[1], linkgit:git-update-index[1],
+linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]
GIT
---