Git ignore a specific file in Eclipse

Question

I guess this kind of question has been asked many times (and I've seen several questions on SO dealing with this subject) but I still have a problem to ignore a file in my Git.

The structure of my project looks like this:

myProject/
    .gitignore
    src/test/java/packageName/
        Main.java

I would like to ignore Main.java (the file is different between each user).

---

.gitignore file

.settings
.project
.classpath
target/
test-output/
node_modules/**
.orig

---

I've tried:

• Adding src/test/java/packageName/Main.java to my .gitignore.

• Creating a .gitignore file in src/test/java/packageName/ that just contains Main.java.

Both solutions have no effect: I still see Main.java in the Git Staging view after restarting Eclipse.

---

I guess the solution is simple, but I'm stuck on it for several hours, and I hope you can help me.

Thanks! :-)

UPDATE

All Git users have Main.java, but the class is different from one person to another (user name hardcoded in the class).

I want this class to be present on the HEAD branch (so that new developers can recover it), but each developer can have a local version (invisible in Git Staging).

Answer 1

Your problem is probably that Main.java is already in your index. The solution

First make it disappear

git rm src/test/java/packageName/Main.java

then add it to your gitignore

echo "src/test/java/packageName/Main.java" >> .gitignore

now commit these changes

git add .gitignore
git commit -m "please ignore me!"

And it should work :-)

You can now recreate your Main.java and it should no longer appear in git status.

Answer 2

Able to achieve it in Eclipse Oxygen. Here step follows.

1. Enable "Automatic Ignore" .ignore file from window-> preference.

2. Right Click on file/folder to ignore. For example right click on target folder(contains .class file). Team -> Ignore

3. Go to Staging view, you will see .ignore file generate.
4. Right click on .ignore file and ignore that again.