How to .gitignore all files/folder in a folder, but not the folder itself?

Question

I want to check in a blank folder to my Git repository. Effectively, I need to ignore all of the files and folders within the folder, but not the folder itself. How can I do this? What should I put in my .gitignore file?

For those wondering why I would want to do this, I have an "upload" directory in my repository. I want to commit the blank directory, but without all the contents.

I had exactly the same thing. Just added a README file to that explaining that this is the upload directory and git understood it :) — Evgeny, Nov 22 '10 at 20:52
You've pretty much answered your own question: put a .gitignore which says "ignore everything" into that folder; this is mipadi's answer. — Cascabel, Nov 22 '10 at 21:13
This is useful to put empty build folder in git. No content inside build folder needs to be checked in — Vishnudev K, Mar 13 '15 at 10:42
I still can't believe Git has no way to do this properly. SVN can do it. — BoffinBrain, Aug 23 '17 at 15:50
I know this has been marked as a duplicate but just for the sake of completeness and for those reading this in the future: [Git does not version folders](https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/GitFaq#Can_I_add_empty_directories.3F). The typical workaround is to include a `.gitkeep` or `.keep` file in the folder you want to version. — Mig82, Feb 12 '19 at 09:28
I've developed a [helper tool for this which you can find in here](https://github.com/mig82/py-gitkeep). You can install it running `pip3 install gitkeep2` and then run `gitkeep --recursive path/to/foo` to keep folder `foo` and all its subfolders. It also allows you to comment those `.gitkeep` files and remove them recursively or not. — Mig82, Feb 12 '19 at 09:32

score 1552 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 08 '20 at 13:10

1552

Put this .gitignore into the folder, then git add .gitignore.

*
*/
!.gitignore

The * line tells git to ignore all files in the folder, but !.gitignore tells git to still include the .gitignore file. This way, your local repository and any other clones of the repository all get both the empty folder and the .gitignore it needs.

Edit: May be obvious but also add */ to the .gitignore to also ignore subfolders.

edited Sep 08 '20 at 13:10

Qrzysio

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answered Apr 07 '11 at 13:37

Trianam

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Ignoring directories `*/` is not necessary because `*` also covers directories. – wst Feb 01 '18 at 08:11
5

[NB](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore#_pattern_format) «It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded.» – Timofey Gorshkov Jan 17 '19 at 10:58
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Workaround for @TimofeyGorshkov's point above: `* ; !dir/ ; dir/* ; !dir/reincludefile` – OJFord May 18 '19 at 22:34
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One should note, the second `.gitignore` does not need to named that. Any `filename` will do as long as the file's contents include `!filename`. I mention this because we thought having a `.gitignore` file which functions to keep a directory seemed misleading and unclear. – Derek Henderson Apr 07 '20 at 13:18
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This should be the accepted solution. – slick1537 May 07 '20 at 13:18
Really, the best solution so far. – Artur Barseghyan Jun 23 '21 at 13:39
Why is this 'the best solution'... `.gitkeep` was literally designed for this? – ortonomy Oct 18 '21 at 05:06

score 910 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 08 '20 at 09:41

910

You can't commit empty folders in git. If you want it to show up, you need to put something in it, even just an empty file.

For example, add an empty file called .gitkeep to the folder you want to keep, then in your .gitignore file write:

# exclude everything
somefolder/*

# exception to the rule
!somefolder/.gitkeep

Commit your .gitignore and .gitkeep files and this should resolve your issue.

edited Sep 08 '20 at 09:41

Qrzysio

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answered Nov 22 '10 at 20:43

kubi

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isnt there a `--bare` option? – sdot257 Nov 22 '10 at 20:56
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The best way is as listed above by Trianam. Include a .gitignore file at the dir. This .gitignore should ignore all files inside that dir (*), except itself (!.gitignore). – Leandro Alves Jul 30 '12 at 17:24
Only commit and empty folder dose not solve the issue of be sure files in this folder will never be traked. Better to use a .gitignore file as @Trianam showed below. – gabrielem Aug 15 '15 at 12:41
@LeandroAlves creating a.gitignore file inside of each directory is bad practice at all... – Yousha Aleayoub Sep 17 '20 at 10:25
Is there a reason why putting `somefolder/` (without a star) in .gitignore would override later negation and would not not include .gitkeep? – ruslaniv Feb 23 '21 at 18:33
2

this does not work – Sunil Garg Nov 26 '21 at 07:36

How to .gitignore all files/folder in a folder, but not the folder itself?

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