🌱 BasicsCommonly used

How to set up a .gitignore file

Tell Git which files and folders to ignore.

Create a .gitignore file

touch .gitignore

Creates a .gitignore file in the current directory.

Add patterns one per line. Use * for wildcards.

Common .gitignore patterns

# Dependencies
node_modules/

# Environment variables
.env
.env.local

# Build output
dist/
.next/
out/

# OS files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# Editor
.vscode/
.idea/

Common patterns for a Node.js / Next.js project.

Ignore already-tracked files

git rm --cached filename.txt
git commit -m "Stop tracking filename.txt"

If a file was already committed, remove it from tracking without deleting it locally.

When to use: You added .env to .gitignore but it was already being tracked.

Check if a file is ignored

git check-ignore -v filename.txt

Shows which .gitignore rule is causing the file to be ignored.

Related Tasks

🌱

Initialize a repo

git init

🌱

Stage files

git add filename.txt

🌱

Make a commit

git commit -m "your message here"

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