git ignore vim temporary files

Question

What is the correct way to make git ignore temporary files produced by vim in all directories (either globally across the system or locally for a single project)?

Answer 1

# VIM: Temperory files
*~

# VIM: Swap-files
[._]*.s[a-w][a-z]
[._]s[a-w][a-z]

# VIM: Commands :cs, :ctags
tags
cscope.*

# VIM session
Session.vim

# VIM: netrw.vim: Network oriented reading, writing, browsing (eg: ftp scp) 
.netrwhist

The name of the swap file is normally the same as the file you are editing, with the extension ".swp".

• On Unix, a '.' is prepended to swap file names in the same directory as the edited file. This avoids that the swap file shows up in a directory listing.
• On MS-DOS machines and when the 'shortname' option is on, any '.' in the original file name is replaced with '_'.
• If this file already exists (e.g., when you are recovering from a crash) a warning is given and another extension is used, ".swo", ".swn", etc.
• An existing file will never be overwritten.
• The swap file is deleted as soon as Vim stops editing the file.

The replacement of '.' with '_' is done to avoid problems with MS-DOS compatible filesystems (e.g., crossdos, multidos).

http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/recover.html

http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1075