Git ignore file for C projects

Question

I've just started to learn C (using Thinking In C) and I'm wondering about what files I should be ignoring in a C project's git repository.

No suggestion can be too obvious -- I'm a total noob. Thanks!

Answer 1

I guess there will be a few generated files that you don't wan't to be sticking in your repo (assuming your build output dir is in your git heirachy):

• object files (.o, o.obj)
• libraries (.lib)
• DLLs, shared objects (.so, .dll)
• Executables (.exe, a.out ?)

GIT ignore files are something I tend to do iteratively. "Hey, I don't need those things in my repo" ...

Edit: re dmckee's comment

Yep, you definately want to be ignoring swap files, temp files etc. I have the following as a baseline for my .gitignore:

• *.swp
• .~
• thumbs.db

Answer 2

You can also setup your build to happen in a subdirectory say build and then you can ignore the whole thing inside .gitignore

build/

And you're done.

Answer 3

I use this in my .gitignore But I am building for micro-controllers, so I don't know if it helps you much.

The easiest way to know, is just do a make clean, then add all your files, then do a make all and see what extra stuff appears.

#Some of these are related to eclipse. So i keep them out of my repo
.cproject
.dep/
.project
.settings/

#files being edited
*~

# make and build files
*.lst
*.o
*.eep
*.lss
*.map
*.sym

# I keep these, since I prefer having the reference of the final build
# *.elf
# *.hex