How do I push files specified in .gitignore?

Question

If I have a "vendors" directory in my .gitignore, is there a way I can set up a remote that will receive that directory anyway when I do a push?

Answer 1

Your .gitignore file has nothing to do with pushing. It is used by things like git status and git add to figure out what files should be (or could be) part of a future commit. You can add things that are ignored using the git add command; it will throw an error unless you use the -f option:

The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files:
somefilename
Use -f if you really want to add them.
fatal: no files added

Once you've added the file to the repository, it will be pushed along with any other changes.

Answer 2

I think the functionality you're looking for can be achieved by having a branch used to deploy to your Cloud Provider.

Setup a dev branch which includes your .gitignore file, check your incremental work into that branch.

Merge your dev branch into your deploy branch which doesn't contain a .gitignore file but contains the vendors directory.

once you've completed your merge, push to the deployment remote from your deploy branch.