Selective git ignore by remote?

Question

Say I have a project that is located on both a public open-source repo and a private development repo. Some files on the development repo would include stuff like database passwords and such that I don't want public. What would be the best way to share the safe files between the two remotes? I'm thinking some kind of .gitignore file that is only applied to the public repo, is that possible? If not, any other suggestions?

Answer 1

Maybe put the more sensitive files in a different repo, submodule it in the original repo and give only your private developers the access to the private repo.