.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

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

\.git\info

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