Why is git ignoring my changed file?

Question

I make an arbitrary change to a file within my git working directory.

git status does not recognized that the file has changed.

git add /path

Answer 1

There are two general reasons why Git will ignore a file: gitignore and submodules.

To be more specific, the following conditions will cause Git to ignore a file when 'git add' is invoked:

1. The file matches a pattern in $GIT_DIR/exclude.
2. The file matches a pattern in a .gitignore file inside the repo.
3. The file matches a pattern in a user-specific .gitignore file (specified by 'git config --global core.excludesfile').
4. The file is part of a submodule.

More info can be found in another SO question:

Unable to track files within Git submodules