Overview

Adding a .gitignore file to a project allows you to exclude certain files and directories from being tracked by git. However, it can be tedious to repeatedly add default directories like .idea generated by IDEs to .gitignore for each new project. This article explains how to apply .gitignore settings globally across all projects.

Applying gitignore Globally

Git by default checks for ignore settings in ~/.config/git/ignore. Therefore, by placing your ignore configurations in this file, you can have them applied to all your projects.

While it’s common to create a .gitignore_global and register it under core.excludesfile, this method requires unnecessary configuration in .gitconfig, which is why the approach described here is recommended.

Steps to Apply gitignore Globally

Create a Directory for Ignore File

Create a directory to store your ignore file, if it doesn’t already exist:

1

mkdir -p ~/.config/git/

Create and Configure the Ignore File

Create the ignore file and write the patterns for files and directories you want to ignore globally:

1

vim ~/.config/git/ignore

Example of what to include:

1
2
3

.idea/
*.log
node_modules/

Applying the Ignore Settings

These settings will now automatically apply to all projects managed under your user account. If there are already tracked files you wish to ignore, use git rm --cached to stop tracking them without deleting the files.

Reference

• Git - gitignore

By following these steps, you can efficiently manage your ignore settings across all your git projects without having to replicate configurations in each project repository.