When would you use .git/info/exclude instead of .gitignore to exclude files?

git gitignore
Parag picture Parag · Apr 7, 2014 · Viewed 42.9k times · Source

I am a bit confused about the pros and cons of using .git/info/exclude and .gitignore to exclude files.

Both of them are at the level of the repository/project, so how do they differ and when should we use .git/info/exclude ?

Answer

mu 無 picture mu 無 · Apr 7, 2014

The advantage of .gitignore is that it can be checked into the repository itself, unlike .git/info/exclude. Another advantage is that you can have multiple .gitignore files, one inside each directory/subdirectory for directory specific ignore rules, unlike .git/info/exclude.

So, .gitignore is available across all clones of the repository. Therefore, in large teams all people are ignoring the same kind of files Example *.db, *.log. And you can have more specific ignore rules because of multiple .gitignore.

.git/info/exclude is available for individual clones only, hence what one person ignores in his clone is not available in some other person's clone. For example, if someone uses Eclipse for development it may make sense for that developer to add .build folder to .git/info/exclude because other devs may not be using Eclipse.

In general, files/ignore rules that have to be universally ignored should go in .gitignore, and otherwise files that you want to ignore only on your local clone should go into .git/info/exclude

Related questions

How to make Git "forget" about a file that was tracked but is now in .gitignore?

There is a file that was being tracked by git, but now the file is on the .gitignore list. However, that file keeps showing up in git status after it's edited. How do you force git to completely forget about …

Read More
How to create a .gitignore file

I need to add some rules to my .gitignore file. However, I can't find it in my project folder. Isn't it created automatically by Xcode? If not, what command allows me to create one?

Read More
.gitignore and "The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by checkout"

So I added a folder to my .gitignore file. Once I do a git status it tells me # On branch latest nothing to commit (working directory clean) However, when I try to change branches I get the following: My-MacBook-Pro:webapp …

Read More