Git: How to set up a global ignore file

Make ye global ignore file

The core.excludesFile option configures where Git looks for your global ignore file—but normally you won’t need to set the option. It defaults to $HOME/.config/git/ignore, which is a standard place for tool-specific configuration within your home directory.

(The Linux-specific env var $XDG_CONFIG_HOME takes precedence over the $HOME/.config prefix, if set. But since $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to $HOME/.config, this will normally result in the same directory being used.)

You can ensure your .config/git directory exists (using bash/zsh) with:

$ mkdir -p $HOME/.config/git

Then, create the file with your editor:

$ $EDITOR $HOME/.config/git/ignore

Now to add some patterns…

(They use the same format as repo-specifc .gitignore files.)

Start with a foundation of OS-specific patterns

Whichever OS you use, it probably adds some small cache files in directories. For example, I use macOS which adds a .DS_store file to pretty much every directory viewed with its file explorer. These files are never useful to track in Git.

GitHub have a repository of ignore file templates. Their OS-specific templates are a good starting place for your global ignore file. Pick the right one and copy-and-paste its contents:

• Linux
• macOS
• Windows

Job done.

Fill in with editor-specifc patterns

Most teams use a mix of text editors, and even you all use the same, you probably don’t want to share configuration. So, it’s good to add some global patterns to avoid committing your text editor’s specific project files and directories.

Personally, I use Sublime Text, which uses two files for projects. I use these two patterns to ignore them:

# Sublime Text
*.sublime-project
*.sublime-workspace

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

If you need some inspiration for your editor patterns, GitHub’s ignore template repo may again be useful—see its “Global” directory. Beware though, the templates seem to have varying opinions on what patterns to include. For example, the VS Code template currently starts:

.vscode/*
!.vscode/settings.json
...

The ! signifies an “unignore” pattern, so the second line here makes the .vscode/settings.json file commitable. This seems wrong to me—different team members may want to use different VS Code settings.

I’d instead recommend a single pattern to exclude .vscode entirely, and add such an unignore pattern in projects where members do want to share configuration. So yeah, caveat yourself, emptor.

Sprinkle in some tool-specific patterns

You may also find it useful to add some patterns to exclude files generated by your programming language, or other tools. Your project repos should include such patterns in their .gitignore files, so all team members can benefit. But, adding a few language-specific patterns to your global ignore file can help prevent accidental additions in temporary test repos, one-off contributions, etc.

I use Python heavily, so I added these patterns to my global ignore file:

# Python
*.pyc
venv
.tox

Respectively, these choice patterns ignore Python’s byte code files, virtual environments, and environments made by the tox testing tool.

Follow suite as you see fit.

Fin

May you always ignore the noise and focus on the signal,

—Adam