One of the most common Git configuration tasks that developers often miss is the Global Git ignore configuration.
We have previously discussed useful options you may choose to configure in Advanced Git Configuration Options and even How To Automate Creating Gitignore Files.
Git ignore files are a great way of ensuring that certain files or files of a particular type do not get included in
your local repository when making commits. For instance, you may not want to commit compiled code, or system logs, or
config files. To ignore files, you can specify which ones you want to ignore in .gitignore.
Often Operating Systems and even Integrated Development Environments (IDE) may also generate files, often hidden files that shouldn't be included in repositories.
On the n the Apple macOS operating system, .DS_Store is a file that stores custom attributes of its containing folder,
such as the position of icons or the choice of a background image. Microsoft Windows has a similar folder thumbs.db
containing the small images displayed when you view a folder in Thumbnail view (as opposed to Tile, Icon, List, or
Detail view).
These files should never be included in your version control project, and often you'll find entries in project based
.gitignore files which to ensure that these files are not included.
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
The problem with this approach, is that project .gitignore files are not necessarily the best place to configure
these settings. Especially considering the Multitude of different Operating Systems, IDE's and system configuration
that can be found across any development team, especially teams collaborating on open source software projects.
These days it is highly likely, you will find yourself on a project team, where no two developers will be using the same
tools. So potentially your project .gitignore file will become polluted on unmanageable by attempting to cater for
all eventualities. This configuration will have to be repeated across all project repositories you and your team work
with.
Fortunately, Git has a solution for this very problem, the Global Git Ignore file or the core.excludesfile.
Using the core.excludesfile you can ignore certain files for all repositories that you work with. Enabling you to
a kind of global .gitignore file.
how to configure a global gitignore file
To create a global exclude file, simply create a .gitignore in your Home directory, and add your gitignore settings.
# Apple system
.DS_Store
.vscode
### Windows
Thumbs.db
### global gitignore for vmd developers to use
## Linux
*~
# temporary files which can be created if a process still has a handle open of a deleted file
.fuse_hidden*
# KDE directory preferences
.directory
# Linux trash folder which might appear on any partition or disk
.Trash-*
# .nfs files are created when an open file is removed but is still being accessed
.nfs*
Once you have finished adding your rules. You can simply configure git to use them in your global configuration.
## On Linux or MAc OS
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore
## On Windows
git config --global core.excludesfile %USERPROFILE%\.gitignore
Git will now ensure that these types of files are never included in any of your repositories.
Why teams should have a common file
Software teams and software developers will more than likely be working on more than one software project and will have multiple source code repositories. Trying to remember to edit and copy your personal settings to each repository, is impractical and error prone.
Its far simpler to do this once and simply forget about it! Nobody knows your configuration settings like yourself or your team!
Personally, I develop mostly on Linux and I make heavy use of most Jetbrains Products and IDE's so my preference is to
exclude the LInux OS files and Jetbrains IDE settings files from my repositories. I have my local .gitignore file
configured as below, ensuring all these files are never included in repositories.
### global gitignore for vmd developers to use
## Linux
*~
# temporary files which can be created if a process still has a handle open of a deleted file
.fuse_hidden*
# KDE directory preferences
.directory
# Linux trash folder which might appear on any partition or disk
.Trash-*
# .nfs files are created when an open file is removed but is still being accessed
.nfs*
################### Jetbrains specific
# Covers JetBrains IDEs: IntelliJ, RubyMine, PhpStorm, AppCode, PyCharm, CLion, Android Studio, WebStorm and Rider
# Reference: https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206544839
# User-specific stuff
.idea/**/workspace.xml
.idea/**/tasks.xml
.idea/**/usage.statistics.xml
.idea/**/dictionaries
.idea/**/shelf
# Generated files
.idea/**/contentModel.xml
# Sensitive or high-churn files
.idea/**/dataSources/
.idea/**/dataSources.ids
.idea/**/dataSources.local.xml
.idea/**/sqlDataSources.xml
.idea/**/dynamic.xml
.idea/**/uiDesigner.xml
.idea/**/dbnavigator.xml
# Gradle
.idea/**/gradle.xml
.idea/**/libraries
# Gradle and Maven with auto-import
# When using Gradle or Maven with auto-import, you should exclude module files,
# since they will be recreated, and may cause churn. Uncomment if using
# auto-import.
# .idea/artifacts
# .idea/compiler.xml
# .idea/jarRepositories.xml
# .idea/modules.xml
# .idea/*.iml
# .idea/modules
# *.iml
# *.ipr
# CMake
cmake-build-*/
# Mongo Explorer plugin
.idea/**/mongoSettings.xml
# File-based project format
*.iws
# IntelliJ
out/
# mpeltonen/sbt-idea plugin
.idea_modules/
# JIRA plugin
atlassian-ide-plugin.xml
# Cursive Clojure plugin
.idea/replstate.xml
# Crashlytics plugin (for Android Studio and IntelliJ)
com_crashlytics_export_strings.xml
crashlytics.properties
crashlytics-build.properties
fabric.properties
# Editor-based Rest Client
.idea/httpRequests
# Android studio 3.1+ serialized cache file
.idea/caches/build_file_checksums.ser
Conclusion
Taking the five minutes to configure your local git configuration can save you and your team a load of time and drastically reduce the complexity of your project .gitignore files.