.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

Another possible reason – a few instances of Git clients running at the same time. For example, "git shell" + "GitHub Desktop", etc.

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This happened to me. I was using "GitHub Desktop" as the main client, and it was ignoring some new .gitignore settings: commit after commit:

1. You commit something.
2. Next, commit: it ignores .gitignore settings. Commit includes lots of temporary files mentioned in the .gitignore.
3. Clear Git cache; check whether .gitignore is UTF-8; remove files → commit → move files back; skip one commit – nothing helped.

Reason: the Visual Studio Code editor was running in the background with the same opened repository. Visual Studio Code has built-in Git control, and this makes for some conflicts.

Solution: double-check multiple, hidden Git clients and use only one Git client at a time, especially while clearing the Git cache.