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+gitignore(5)
+============
+
+NAME
+----
+gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+
+A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that
+Git should ignore.
+Files already tracked by Git are not affected; see the NOTES
+below for details.
+
+Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a pattern.
+When deciding whether to ignore a path, Git normally checks
+`gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following
+order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of
+precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome):
+
+ * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support
+ them.
+
+ * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory
+ as the path, or in any parent directory (up to the top-level of the working
+ tree), with patterns in the higher level files being overridden by those in
+ lower level files down to the directory containing the file. These patterns
+ match relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file. A project normally
+ includes such `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for
+ files generated as part of the project build.
+
+ * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
+
+ * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration
+ variable `core.excludesFile`.
+
+Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to
+be used.
+
+ * Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to
+ other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want
+ to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file.
+
+ * Patterns which are
+ specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared
+ with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside
+ the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into
+ the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file.
+
+ * Patterns which a user wants Git to
+ ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by
+ the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by
+ `core.excludesFile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`. Its default value is
+ $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or
+ empty, $HOME/.config/git/ignore is used instead.
+
+The underlying Git plumbing tools, such as
+'git ls-files' and 'git read-tree', read
+`gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from
+files specified by command-line options. Higher-level Git
+tools, such as 'git status' and 'git add',
+use patterns from the sources specified above.
+
+PATTERN FORMAT
+--------------
+
+ - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator
+ for readability.
+
+ - A line starting with # serves as a comment.
+ Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first hash for patterns
+ that begin with a hash.
+
+ - Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash
+ ("`\`").
+
+ - 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.
+ Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns
+ that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`".
+
+ - The slash '/' is used as the directory separator. Separators may
+ occur at the beginning, middle or end of the `.gitignore` search pattern.
+
+ - If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the
+ pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the
+ particular `.gitignore` file itself. Otherwise the pattern may also
+ match at any level below the `.gitignore` level.
+
+ - If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern
+ will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both
+ files and directories.
+
+ - For example, a pattern `doc/frotz/` matches `doc/frotz` directory,
+ but not `a/doc/frotz` directory; however `frotz/` matches `frotz`
+ and `a/frotz` that is a directory (all paths are relative from
+ the `.gitignore` file).
+
+ - An asterisk "`*`" matches anything except a slash.
+ The character "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`".
+ The range notation, e.g. `[a-zA-Z]`, can be used to match
+ one of the characters in a range. See fnmatch(3) and the
+ FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed description.
+
+Two consecutive asterisks ("`**`") in patterns matched against
+full pathname may have special meaning:
+
+ - A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all
+ directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory
+ "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "`**/foo/bar`"
+ matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly
+ under directory "`foo`".
+
+ - A trailing "`/**`" matches everything inside. For example,
+ "`abc/**`" matches all files inside directory "`abc`", relative
+ to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth.
+
+ - A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
+ matches zero or more directories. For example, "`a/**/b`"
+ matches "`a/b`", "`a/x/b`", "`a/x/y/b`" and so on.
+
+ - Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and
+ will match according to the previous rules.
+
+CONFIGURATION
+-------------
+
+The optional configuration variable `core.excludesFile` indicates a path to a
+file containing patterns of file names to exclude, similar to
+`$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to
+those in `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`.
+
+NOTES
+-----
+
+The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files
+not tracked by Git remain untracked.
+
+To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked, use
+'git rm --cached'.
+
+Git does not follow symbolic links when accessing a `.gitignore` file in
+the working tree. This keeps behavior consistent when the file is
+accessed from the index or a tree versus from the filesystem.
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+
+ - The pattern `hello.*` matches any file or directory
+ whose name begins with `hello.`. If one wants to restrict
+ this only to the directory and not in its subdirectories,
+ one can prepend the pattern with a slash, i.e. `/hello.*`;
+ the pattern now matches `hello.txt`, `hello.c` but not
+ `a/hello.java`.
+
+ - The pattern `foo/` will match a directory `foo` and
+ paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file
+ or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent with the
+ way how pathspec works in general in Git)
+
+ - The pattern `doc/frotz` and `/doc/frotz` have the same effect
+ in any `.gitignore` file. In other words, a leading slash
+ is not relevant if there is already a middle slash in
+ the pattern.
+
+ - The pattern "foo/*", matches "foo/test.json"
+ (a regular file), "foo/bar" (a directory), but it does not match
+ "foo/bar/hello.c" (a regular file), as the asterisk in the
+ pattern does not match "bar/hello.c" which has a slash in it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+ $ git status
+ [...]
+ # Untracked files:
+ [...]
+ # Documentation/foo.html
+ # Documentation/gitignore.html
+ # file.o
+ # lib.a
+ # src/internal.o
+ [...]
+ $ cat .git/info/exclude
+ # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
+ *.[oa]
+ $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
+ # ignore generated html files,
+ *.html
+ # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
+ !foo.html
+ $ git status
+ [...]
+ # Untracked files:
+ [...]
+ # Documentation/foo.html
+ [...]
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Another example:
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+ $ cat .gitignore
+ vmlinux*
+ $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
+ arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
+ $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The second .gitignore prevents Git from ignoring
+`arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`.
+
+Example to exclude everything except a specific directory `foo/bar`
+(note the `/*` - without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude
+everything within `foo/bar`):
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+ $ cat .gitignore
+ # exclude everything except directory foo/bar
+ /*
+ !/foo
+ /foo/*
+ !/foo/bar
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+linkgit:git-rm[1],
+linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5],
+linkgit:git-check-ignore[1]
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite