git add adding ignored files

Question

I'm trying to remove a previously tracked directory from git, which works, but it's being added back with each subsequent git add ., git add -A, etc. Here's what I've done:

Add to .gitignore in root of project:

node_modules 

Run the following:

git rm -r --cached node_modules git commit -a -m "removed node_modules" git push origin master 

So far so good, this removes the directory from the remote repository. The problem is when I later run git status it tells me the node_modules directory is untracked and keeps adding it back on future commits.

What am I missing and/or how do I find the root of my problem?

From here:

The git add command will not add ignored files by default. ... The git add command can be used to add ignored files with the -f (force) option.

Additional information from comments:

I am tracking .gitignore file.

git check-ignore node_modules/ returns node_modules/ as expected.

No use of submodules.

Update:

I've created a sample that appears to replicate the issue following the steps above:

https://github.com/awhitehouse104/SampleRepo

Resolution:

To summarize the answer and comments from below, the issue was in the encoding of my .gitignore file. I had used echo 'node_modules' > .gitignore to create the file on windows 8 and it came out as UTF-16 with BOM (according to answer below). After a few google searches, it seems this is the default encoding with powershell and I can confirm that saving as UTF-8 seems to have resolved the issue.

tldr; Probably don't use this method of creating .gitignore files or be prepared to change the encoding

echo 'node_modules' > .gitignore

Answer 1

You probably have a negative rule (include-again rule, the one that starts with an !) in your .gitignore file somewhere after the node_modules line.

git check-ignore has a bug/ambiguity in the docs. You expect that if git check-ignore node_modules/ prints node_modules/, then node_modules/ is ignored. But actually it prints a pathname if that pathname matches any ignore pattern - positive or negative. The only way to be sure is to use the -v (--verbose) option, which will make git check-ignore print the matching pattern.
Moreover, if git check-ignore -v says a directory is ignored, it doesn't necessarily mean that all files in that directory are ignored. Example repo:

/     .git/     .gitignore     node_modules/         bar         foo 

$ cat .gitignore  /node_modules/* !/node_modules/foo  $ git check-ignore -v node_modules/ .gitignore:1:/node_modules/*    node_modules/              ^ positive pattern => ignored  $ git check-ignore -v node_modules/foo .gitignore:2:!/node_modules/foo node_modules/foo              ^ negative pattern => not ignored  $ git add -A  $ git status # On branch master # Changes to be committed: #   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) # #   new file:   node_modules/foo # 

So if git check-ignore -v node_modules/ says node_modules/ is ignored, do git add -A node_modules/ and then run git check-ignore -v --no-index against individual files that got added, to discover why they were added.

---

Update: I didn't expect that: your .gitignore file is in "UTF-16 with BOM (byte order mark)" encoding:

$ cat .gitignore | hexdump -vC 00000000  ff fe 6e 00 6f 00 64 00  65 00 5f 00 6d 00 6f 00  |..n.o.d.e._.m.o.| 00000010  64 00 75 00 6c 00 65 00  73 00 0d 00 0a 00        |d.u.l.e.s.....| 

That's why git probably can't handle it. Save the file in UTF-8 without BOM, that should fix the problem. But I also suggest filing a bug report against git check-ignore - in this corner case its output is clearly not consistent with what git actually ignores.

Answer 2

Add the file to git ignore, then

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>