Gitignore won't ignore .vs folder for Visual Studio 2015 RC on Windows7/8

Question

We've tried all sorts of explicit and wildcard entries in .gitignore however items in the hidden .vs/ folder as a part of Visual Studio 2015 RC keep getting committed.

Since those are individual settings for developers, they are obviously always different and show up in a git diff.

Are there any hacks out there to ignore everything in the top-level .vs/ folder in the repo?

Answer 1

Follow the steps below, the issue will be solved.

Step 1: Add following content to the file .gitignore.

## Ignore Visual Studio temporary files, build results, and  ## files generated by popular Visual Studio add-ons.    # User-specific files  *.suo  *.user  *.userosscache  *.sln.docstates    # User-specific files (MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio)  *.userprefs    # Build results  [Dd]ebug/  [Dd]ebugPublic/  [Rr]elease/  [Rr]eleases/  x64/  x86/  bld/  [Bb]in/  [Oo]bj/  [Ll]og/    # Visual Studio 2015 cache/options directory  .vs/  # Uncomment if you have tasks that create the project's static files in wwwroot  #wwwroot/    # MSTest test Results  [Tt]est[Rr]esult*/  [Bb]uild[Ll]og.*    # NUNIT  *.VisualState.xml  TestResult.xml    # Build Results of an ATL Project  [Dd]ebugPS/  [Rr]eleasePS/  dlldata.c    # DNX  project.lock.json  artifacts/    *_i.c  *_p.c  *_i.h  *.ilk  *.meta  *.obj  *.pch  *.pdb  *.pgc  *.pgd  *.rsp  *.sbr  *.tlb  *.tli  *.tlh  *.tmp  *.tmp_proj  *.log  *.vspscc  *.vssscc  .builds  *.pidb  *.svclog  *.scc    # Chutzpah Test files  _Chutzpah*    # Visual C++ cache files  ipch/  *.aps  *.ncb  *.opendb  *.opensdf  *.sdf  *.cachefile    # Visual Studio profiler  *.psess  *.vsp  *.vspx  *.sap    # TFS 2012 Local Workspace  $tf/    # Guidance Automation Toolkit  *.gpState    # ReSharper is a .NET coding add-in  _ReSharper*/  *.[Rr]e[Ss]harper  *.DotSettings.user    # JustCode is a .NET coding add-in  .JustCode    # TeamCity is a build add-in  _TeamCity*    # DotCover is a Code Coverage Tool  *.dotCover    # NCrunch  _NCrunch_*  .*crunch*.local.xml  nCrunchTemp_*    # MightyMoose  *.mm.*  AutoTest.Net/    # Web workbench (sass)  .sass-cache/    # Installshield output folder  [Ee]xpress/    # DocProject is a documentation generator add-in  DocProject/buildhelp/  DocProject/Help/*.HxT  DocProject/Help/*.HxC  DocProject/Help/*.hhc  DocProject/Help/*.hhk  DocProject/Help/*.hhp  DocProject/Help/Html2  DocProject/Help/html    # Click-Once directory  publish/    # Publish Web Output  *.[Pp]ublish.xml  *.azurePubxml  # TODO: Comment the next line if you want to checkin your web deploy settings   # but database connection strings (with potential passwords) will be unencrypted  *.pubxml  *.publishproj    # NuGet Packages  *.nupkg  # The packages folder can be ignored because of Package Restore  **/packages/*  # except build/, which is used as an MSBuild target.  !**/packages/build/  # Uncomment if necessary however generally it will be regenerated when needed  #!**/packages/repositories.config  # NuGet v3's project.json files produces more ignoreable files  *.nuget.props  *.nuget.targets    # Microsoft Azure Build Output  csx/  *.build.csdef    # Microsoft Azure Emulator  ecf/  rcf/    # Windows Store app package directories and files  AppPackages/  BundleArtifacts/  Package.StoreAssociation.xml  _pkginfo.txt    # Visual Studio cache files  # files ending in .cache can be ignored  *.[Cc]ache  # but keep track of directories ending in .cache  !*.[Cc]ache/    # Others  ClientBin/  ~$*  *~  *.dbmdl  *.dbproj.schemaview  *.pfx  *.publishsettings  node_modules/  orleans.codegen.cs    # Since there are multiple workflows, uncomment next line to ignore bower_components   # (https://github.com/github/gitignore/pull/1529#issuecomment-104372622)  #bower_components/    # RIA/Silverlight projects  Generated_Code/    # Backup & report files from converting an old project file  # to a newer Visual Studio version. Backup files are not needed,  # because we have git ;-)  _UpgradeReport_Files/  Backup*/  UpgradeLog*.XML  UpgradeLog*.htm    # SQL Server files  *.mdf  *.ldf    # Business Intelligence projects  *.rdl.data  *.bim.layout  *.bim_*.settings    # Microsoft Fakes  FakesAssemblies/    # GhostDoc plugin setting file  *.GhostDoc.xml    # Node.js Tools for Visual Studio  .ntvs_analysis.dat    # Visual Studio 6 build log  *.plg    # Visual Studio 6 workspace options file  *.opt    # Visual Studio LightSwitch build output  **/*.HTMLClient/GeneratedArtifacts  **/*.DesktopClient/GeneratedArtifacts  **/*.DesktopClient/ModelManifest.xml  **/*.Server/GeneratedArtifacts  **/*.Server/ModelManifest.xml  _Pvt_Extensions    # Paket dependency manager  .paket/paket.exe  paket-files/    # FAKE - F# Make  .fake/    # JetBrains Rider  .idea/  *.sln.iml

Step 2: Make sure above operation take effect

If the issue still exists, that's because settings in .gitignore can only ignore files that were originally not tracked. If some files have already been included in the version control system, then modifying .gitignore is invalid. To solve this issue completely, you need to open Git Bash running following commands in the repository root folder.

$ git rm -r --cached .  $ git add .  $ git commit -m 'Update .gitignore'

Certainly, you can also use Package Manager Console of Visual Studio to do the things in Step 2. Then the issue will be completely solved.