.gitignore is ignored by Git

Question

My .gitignore file seems to be being ignored by Git - could the .gitignore file be corrupt? Which file format, locale or culture does Git expect?

Answer 1

Another cause of this issue is blank spaces or tabs before the statement:

Example:

# Be aware of the following:
 notWorkingIgnore.*
workingIgnore.*

And as pointed out by the comment below a trailing space can be an issue as well:

# Be aware of the following:
notWorkingIgnore.* #<-Space
workingIgnore.*#<-Nospace