Git: inverse ignoring (.gitignore)

Question

I created a repository for my home folder. This is my .gitignore file:

!.vim/plugin/*
!.vim/doc/*
.*
*
.viminfo
.vim/.netrwhist
.vim-fuf-data/file/stats
bin/dwm/dwm

So when I create a new file inside .vim/plugin I expected that after git status this file was shown, but no..why?

EDIT: after a pair of answers I changed the position of inverse ignoring lines this way below, but the problems is the same: the new files I create inside the .vim/plugin folder are not shown after git status..

.*
*
.viminfo
.vim/.netrwhist
.vim-fuf-data/file/stats
bin/dwm/dwm
!.vim/plugin/*
!.vim/doc/*

I can reproduce this behavior at my site. I suspect that it is not possible to "unignore" subfolders of ignored folders. — Nobody moving away from SE, Nov 15 '12 at 17:06
@Nobody Yes, that's possible. The problem is the `*`, but I haven't figured out why, yet. — Deve, Nov 15 '12 at 17:27
@Deve: Maybe it should be `/*` instead, it could be that `*` matches `.` and therefore ignores the containing directory itself. — Nobody moving away from SE, Nov 15 '12 at 18:29
Does this answer your question? [Is there a way to tell git to only include certain files instead of ignoring certain files?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1279533/is-there-a-way-to-tell-git-to-only-include-certain-files-instead-of-ignoring-cer) — Mogsdad, Mar 19 '21 at 14:35

score 25 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

In line 4 you're ignoring everything with *. This overrides the previous negating pattern. From the man page:

within one level of precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome

Where "level of precedence" means different sources for ignore patterns like .gitignore and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude.

If you want to ignore everything but the patterns beginning with ! you should move the * to the beginning of .gitignore

Edit

I found a solution with the help of another question on SO:

*
!*/
!.vim/plugin/*

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 13:51

2

Try moving the negated lines (those starting with !) to the bottom of the .gitignore file.

See the Examples section here

answered Nov 15 '12 at 13:51

garyh

2,712
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score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

Another way would be to ignore only top level files and directories, and in the whitelisted directories do the same if necessary, as in this answer to a related question

For example my .gitignore now looks like this

/*
!.gitignore
!.vimrc
!.bashrc
!.vim/
.vim/.netrwhist
!.gconf/
.gconf/apps/*
!.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal
!bin/

The answer of Deve makes git very slow because it searches all directories under your homedir. (In the specific case of using git for the settings in your homedir)

Git: inverse ignoring (.gitignore)

3 Answers3

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