Keep file in a Git repo, but don't track changes

Question

I have several files in a CodeIgniter site that I will want to have in the repo but not track any changes on.

For example, I deploy a new installation of this framework to a new client, I want the following files to be downloaded (they have default values CHANGEME) and I just have to make changes specific to this client (database credentials, email address info, custom CSS).

// the production config files i want the files but they need to be updated to specific client needs application/config/production/config.php application/config/production/database.php application/config/production/tank_auth.php // index page, defines the environment (production|development) /index.php // all of the css/js cache (keep the folder but not the contents) /assets/cache/* // production user based styling (color, fonts etc) needs to be updated specific to client needs /assets/frontend/css/user/frontend-user.css 

Currently if I run

git clone [email protected]:user123/myRepo.git httpdocs 

and then edit the files above, all is great. Until I release a hotfix or patch and run git pull. All of my changes are then overwritten.

Answer 1

git has a different solution to do this. First change the file you do not want to be tracked and use the following command:

git update-index --assume-unchanged FILE_NAME 

and if you want to track the changes again use this command:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged FILE_NAME 

git-update-index documentation

Answer 2

To pull an answer out of the comments of another answer:

$ git update-index --skip-worktree FILENAME

Appears to be a better option than --assume-unchanged

More can be read about this here: Git - Difference Between 'assume-unchanged' and 'skip-worktree'