Something like gitignore but not git ignore

Question

I want to ignore a file containing database-passwords and such. I asked a friend who set up the git if I could us gitignore. He said "no, because there is already a file with dummy data in the repository, there is another function that you should use, I don't remember what it's called, google it!"

I tried googleing, but given the information it's pretty tricky, does anyone know what function he is talking about?

score 10 · Answer 1 · edited May 19 '21 at 18:05

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If you add the file to .git/info/exclude - it will ignored, and this exclude file is local to your repository and will not be available to others.

edited May 19 '21 at 18:05

Ujjwal Singh

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answered Nov 27 '10 at 22:53

Dave Doran

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score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

You should use a gitattribute filter driver

alt text

That way:

on the checkout step, a 'smudge' script can replace the content of your file by whatever you want, saving its original content first (that is, assuming the content of that file is specific enough to be detected as the right content, since a filter driver is about the content of files, not about a specific file pathname).
and/or on the commit step, a 'clean' script can restore the same file in its original content (again assuming the modified content is specific enough to be detected and replaced)

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

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Here's an alternative to gitignore:

Ignore the .gitignore file itself

edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Community

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answered Nov 26 '10 at 20:12

koen

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The link was good - but please always provide relevant pieces in the answer itself rather than throwing in a link alone. – Ujjwal Singh May 19 '21 at 18:06

Something like gitignore but not git ignore

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