How do I ignore files in a directory in Git?

Question

What is the proper syntax for the .gitignore file to ignore files in a directory?

Would it be

config/databases.yml cache/* log/* data/sql/* lib/filter/base/* lib/form/base/* lib/model/map/* lib/model/om/* 

or

/config/databases.yml /cache/* /log/* /data/sql/* /lib/filter/base/* /lib/form/base/* /lib/model/map/* /lib/model/om/* 

?

Answer 1

PATTERN FORMAT

• A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for readability.

• A line starting with # serves as a comment.

• An optional prefix ! which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. If a negated pattern matches, this will override lower precedence patterns sources.

• If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the purpose of the following description, but it would only find a match with a directory. In other words, foo/ will match a directory foo and paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general in git).

• If the pattern does not contain a slash /, git treats it as a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname relative to the location of the .gitignore file (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a .gitignore file).

• Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag: wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname. For example, Documentation/*.html matches Documentation/git.html but not Documentation/ppc/ppc.html or tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html.

• A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname. For example, /*.c matches cat-file.c but not mozilla-sha1/sha1.c.

You can find more here

git help gitignore
or
man gitignore

Answer 2

It would be the former. Go by extensions as well instead of folder structure.

I.e. my example C# development ignore file:

#OS junk files [Tt]humbs.db *.DS_Store  #Visual Studio files *.[Oo]bj *.user *.aps *.pch *.vspscc *.vssscc *_i.c *_p.c *.ncb *.suo *.tlb *.tlh *.bak *.[Cc]ache *.ilk *.log *.lib *.sbr *.sdf ipch/ obj/ [Bb]in [Dd]ebug*/ [Rr]elease*/ Ankh.NoLoad  #Tooling _ReSharper*/ *.resharper [Tt]est[Rr]esult*  #Project files [Bb]uild/  #Subversion files .svn  # Office Temp Files ~$* 

Update

I thought I'd provide an update from the comments below. Although not directly answering the OP's question, see the following for more examples of .gitignore syntax.

Community wiki (constantly being updated):

.gitignore for Visual Studio Projects and Solutions

More examples with specific language use can be found here (thanks to Chris McKnight's comment):

https://github.com/github/gitignore