.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

I noticed that the encoding of the .gitignore was having an effect--if the file was Unicode, it was ignored, if it was ASCII, it wasn't.

Process:

1. Verify status: PS> git status
2. Create a function to Get-FileEncoding
3. Test .gitignore's encoding: PS> Get-FileEncoding .gitignore
4. Change the encoding to ASCII: PS> Set-Content .gitignore -Encoding Ascii -Value (Get-Content .gitignore)
5. Confirm: PS> git status