Want to exclude file from “git diff”

Question

I am trying to exclude a file (db/irrelevant.php) from a Git diff. I have tried putting a file in the db subdirectory called .gitattributes

Answer 1

I do the following:

git add *pattern_to_exclude*
git diff
git reset HEAD .

I know it's not an elegant solution and it sometimes canot be used (eg. if you already have stuff staged) , but it does the trick without having to type a complicated command