.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

If it seems like Git isn't noticing the changes you made to your .gitignore file, you might want to check the following points:

• There might be a global .gitignore file that might interfere with your local one

• When you add something into a .gitignore file, try this:

  git add [uncommitted changes you want to keep] && git commit
  git rm -r --cached .
  git add .
  git commit -m "fixed untracked files"
  

• If you remove something from a .gitignore file, and the above steps maybe don't work,if you found the above steps are not working, try this:

  git add -f [files you want to track again]
  git commit -m "Refresh removing files from .gitignore file."
  
  // For example, if you want the .java type file to be tracked again,
  // The command should be:
  //     git add -f *.java
  

Answer 2

As with the other solutions, commit first and be aware that you will lose any un-committed changes.

I had better results with this:

git rm -r --cached .
git reset HEAD --hard
git status

Note that the status shouldn't have any modified files now.

Answer 3

I just ran into this issue. The content within my .gitignore file continued to appear in the list of untracked files.

I was using this to create the ignore file:

echo "node_modules" > .gitignore

It turns out that the double quotations were causing the issue for me. I deleted the ignore file and then used the command again without quotes, and it worked as expected. I did not need to mess with the file encoding. I'm on a Windows 10 machine using Cmder.

Example:

echo node_modules > .gitignore

Answer 4

For me none of the previous answers worked. I had to copy .gitignore text into the exclude.txt file found at

<Your-project-folder>\.git\info

Once done, refresh your changes and all the untracked files are gone. Commit as usual.

Answer 5

I had this problem, with a .gitignore file containing this line:

lib/ext/

I just realized that in fact, this directory is a symbolic link to a folder somewhere else:

ls -la lib/ext/
lrwxr-xr-x 1 roipoussiere users 47 Feb  6 14:16 lib/ext -> /home/roipoussiere/real/path/to/the/lib

On the line lib/ext/, Git actually looks for a folder, but a symbolic link is a file, so my lib folder is not ignored.

I fixed this by replacing lib/ext/ by lib/ext in my .gitignore file.

Answer 6

Just remove the folder or file, which was committed previously in Git, by the following command. Then gitignore file will reflect the correct files.

    git rm -r -f "folder or files insides"