Gitignore not working

Question

My .gitignore file isn't working for some reason, and no amount of Googling has been able to fix it. Here is what I have:

*.apk
*.ap_
*.dex
*.class
**/bin/
**/gen/
.gradle/
build/
local.properties
**/proguard/
*.log

It's in the directory master, which is my git repo. I'm running Git 1.8.4.2 because I'm on a MacBook running OSX 10.8.6.

Answer 1

The files/folder in your version control will not just delete themselves just because you added them to the .gitignore. They are already in the repository and you have to remove them. You can just do that with this:

(Remember to commit everything you've changed before you do this.)

git rm -rf --cached .
git add .

This removes all files from the repository and adds them back (this time respecting the rules in your .gitignore).

Answer 2

To untrack a single file that has already been added/initialized to your repository, i.e., stop tracking the file but not delete it from your system use: git rm --cached filename

To untrack every file that is now in your .gitignore:

First commit any outstanding code changes, and then, run this command:

git rm -r --cached .

This removes any changed files from the index(staging area), then just run:

git add .

Commit it:

git commit -m ".gitignore is now working"

Answer 3

After going down a bit of a bit of a rabbit hole trying to follow the answers to this question (maybe because I had to do this in a visual studio project), I found the easier path was to

1. Cut and paste the file(s) I no longer want to track into a temporary location

2. Commit the "deletion" of those files

3. Commit a modification of the .gitignore to exclude the files I had temporarily moved

4. Move the files back into the folder.

I found this to be the most straight forward way to go about it (at least in a visual studio, or I would assume other IDE heave based environment like Android Studio), without accidentally shooting myself in the foot with a pretty pervasive git rm -rf --cached . , after which the visual studio project I was working on didn't load.

Answer 4

In my case it was a blank space at the beginning of the file which showed up clearly when I opened the file in Notepad, wasn't obvious in Visual Studio Code.

Answer 5

In my case whitespaces at the end of the lines of .gitignore was the cause. So watch out for whitespaces in the .gitignore!

Answer 6

I solved my problem doing the following:

First of all, I am a windows user, but i have faced similar issue. So, I am posting my solution here.

There is one simple reason why sometimes the .gitignore doesn`t work like it is supposed to. It is due to the EOL conversion behavior.

Here is a quick fix for that

Edit > EOL Conversion > Windows Format > Save

You can blame your text editor settings for that.

For example:

As i am a windows developer, I typically use Notepad++ for editing my text unlike Vim users.

So what happens is, when i open my .gitignore file using Notepad++, it looks something like this:

## Ignore Visual Studio temporary files, build results, and
## files generated by popular Visual Studio add-ons.
##
## Get latest from https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/master/VisualStudio.gitignore


# See https://help.github.com/ignore-files/ for more about ignoring files.

# User-specific files
*.suo
*.user
*.userosscache
*.sln.docstates
*.dll
*.force
# User-specific files (MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio)
*.userprefs

If i open the same file using the default Notepad, this is what i get

## Ignore Visual Studio temporary files, build results, and ## files generated by popular Visual Studio add-ons. ## ## Get latest from  https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/master/VisualStudio.gitignore # See https://help.github.com/ignore-files/ for more about ignoring files. # User-specific files *.suo *.user *.userosscache 

So, you might have already guessed by looking at the output. Everything in the .gitignore has become a one liner, and since there is a ## in the start, it acts as if everything is commented.

The way to fix this is simple: Just open your .gitignore file with Notepad++ , then do the following

Edit > EOL Conversion > Windows Format > Save

The next time you open the same file with the windows default notepad, everything should be properly formatted. Try it and see if this works for you.

Answer 7

Does git reset --hard work for anyone? I am not saying this is a good solution, it just seemed to work first time I tried.