Difference between ** and * in glob matching (.gitignore)

Question

I have the following directory structure and files.

pw-spec/
|-- event_spec.coffee
|-- event_spec.js
|-- integration
|   `-- service
|       |-- auth_spec.coffee         


        

Answer 1

Create a .gitignore in pw-spec in which you insert these two lines:

*.js
*/*.js

Also note that if you already have files tracked in this subdirectory which you want "untracked", you have to make them unknown to the index as such:

git rm --cached path/to/file

For instance, if in directory pw-spec you can do:

find -type f -name "*.js" | xargs git rm --cached

Answer 2

There are two approaches for this type of situation, depending on your needs.

One solution is to put

# generated files
*.js

in pw-spec/.gitignore.

The second solution is to put:

/pw-spec/*.js
/pw-spec/*/*.js
/pw-spec/*/*/*.js

and so forth in the main .gitignore file.This approach is brittle if more sub-directories are added.

I generally prefer to put the .gitignore file at the same level as the Makefile which generates the files that I am ignoring.

Answer 3

The difference is that ** doesn't work, at least not for everyone. See

Why doesn't gitignore work in this case?

You can have a separate .gitignore in pw-spec/