How do I include a .gitignore file as part of my npm module?

Question

I am building an npm module that will generate a specific project template for certain software projects. As such, when a developer installs my npm module and runs it, I would like the program to create files and folders in a certain way.

One such file I would like to include in the project template is a .gitignore file because the software project is going to assume it will be tracked via git. However, when I call "npm install" on my module, npm renames all my .gitignore files to .npmignore files. How can I ensure that my .gitignore files are not tampered with by npm when I distribute my module?

Answer 1

Currently npm doesn't allow .gitignore files to be included as part of an npm package and will instead rename it to .npmignore.

A common workaround is to rename the .gitignore to gitignore before publishing. Then as part of an init script, rename the gitignore file to .gitignore. This approach is used in Create React App

Here's how to do it in Node, code from Create React App init script

  const gitignoreExists = fs.existsSync(path.join(appPath, '.gitignore'));
  if (gitignoreExists) {
    // Append if there's already a `.gitignore` file there
    const data = fs.readFileSync(path.join(appPath, 'gitignore'));
    fs.appendFileSync(path.join(appPath, '.gitignore'), data);
    fs.unlinkSync(path.join(appPath, 'gitignore'));
  } else {
    // Rename gitignore after the fact to prevent npm from renaming it to .npmignore
    // See: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1862
    fs.moveSync(
      path.join(appPath, 'gitignore'),
      path.join(appPath, '.gitignore'),
      []
    );
  }