Add ignored config file to git repo as sample

Question

I have an repository for an app that I\'m working on that includes a configuration file. Currently, I distribute with a .dist extension, and have the user rename th

Answer 1

You can also version and distribute:

• a .gitattributes files declaring a filter driver (for only 'config.dist')
• a smudge script which will detect that content and generate the final (and private, as in "non-versioned" config file)

Now that is bending a bit what a filter driver is about (it is about modifying the content of a file, regardless of its "state", i.e its full path and name). But it can work.
The .gitattributes would contain:

config.dist  filter=generateConfig

And you can register your smudge script (applied during the checkout step when creating/updating the working directory) like:

git config --global filter.generateConfig.smudge /path/to/generateConfig