How to ignore files when running `gcloud app deploy`?

Question

When I run

gcloud app deploy app.yaml 

which files actually get uploaded?

The project folder contains folders and files such as .git, .git_ignore, Makefile or venv that are irrelevant for the deployed application.

How does gcloud app deploy decide which files get uploaded?

Answer 1

tl;dr: you should use a .gcloudignore file, not skip_files in app.yaml.

While the prior two answers make use of skip_files in the app.yaml file. There is now a .gcloudignore that is created when using gcloud deploy or upload commands. The default will depend on the detected language that you are using but here is automatically created .gcloudignore that I found in my Python project:

# This file specifies files that are *not* uploaded to Google Cloud Platform  # using gcloud. It follows the same syntax as .gitignore, with the addition of # "#!include" directives (which insert the entries of the given .gitignore-style # file at that point). # # For more information, run: #   $ gcloud topic gcloudignore # .gcloudignore # If you would like to upload your .git directory, .gitignore file or files # from your .gitignore file, remove the corresponding line # below:  .git  .gitignore  # Python pycache: __pycache__/ 

Note: These commands will not work when both skip_files is defined and .gcloudignore is present. This is not mentioned in the skip_filesdefinition of theapp.yaml` reference.

It seems better to have a globally recognized standard across gcloud commands and makes more sense to adopt the .gcloudignore versus using the skip_files which is only relevant without App Engine. Additionally, it works pretty much like a .gitignore file which the reference mentions:

The syntax of .gcloudignore borrows heavily from that of .gitignore; see https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore or man gitignore for a full reference.

https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/topic/gcloudignore

Answer 2

EDIT Aug 2018: Google has since introduced .gcloudignore, which is now preferred, see dalanmiller's answer.

---

They're all uploaded, unless you use the skip_files instruction in app.yaml. Files with a dot like .git are ignored by default. If you want to add more, beware that you're overriding these defaults and almost certainly want to keep them around.

skip_files:   - ^Makefile$   - ^venv$   # Defaults   - ^(.*/)?#.*#$   - ^(.*/)?.*~$   - ^(.*/)?.*\.py[co]$   - ^(.*/)?.*/RCS/.*$   - ^(.*/)?\..*$ 

Note also that they are uploaded to different places if you use a static handler. Static files are sent to a CDN and are not available to your language run time (although there are ways around that, too).

Make sure to read the docs:

https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python/config/appref#skip_files