Exclude package-lock.json from GitHub contribution activity

Question

Now that npm v5.0.0 is out, using npm packages auto-generates a package-lock.json on npm install. In my case, my package-lock.json file happens to be close to 10,000 lines of code.

Npm also suggests this file should be committed:

npm notice created a lockfile as package-lock.json. You should commit this file.

I don't want this file to be included in the line counts for the contribution activity on GitHub.

I've tried setting the files as vendored code in .gitattributes, but that only affects the repository language.

Is there a way to exclude a file from the contribution activity without adding it to .gitignore?

Answer 1

One way to exclude a file from modifying a user's contribution activity is by associating the commit with a placeholder author. This can be done by providing an empty email field <> in the --author option.

The signature of the --author option: --author="NAME <EMAIL>"

git add package-lock.json git commit -m 'initial commit' --author='nocontribute <>' 

FOO_AUTHOR committed with REAL_AUTHOR x time ago.