How do I tell Git to ignore everything except a subdirectory?

Question

I want to ignore all files in my repository except those that occur in the bin subdirectory. I tried adding the following to my .gitignore:

*
!bin/*

This does not have the desired effect, however: I created a new file inside of bin/, but doing git status still shows nothing to commit (working directory clean).

Any suggestions?

See also [.gitignore exclude folder but include specific subfolder](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5533050/gitignore-exclude-folder-but-include-specific-subfolder) — 1615903, Mar 30 '17 at 13:51

score 334 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 21 '11 at 19:04

334

This ignores root files & root directories, then un-ignores the root bin directory:

/*
/*/
!/bin/

This way you get all of the bin directory, including subdirectories and their files.

answered Dec 21 '11 at 19:04

Tyler Laing

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For some reason this doesn't work consistently for me. I have the two lines `/stuff/` and `!/stuff/specific/`, but it still ignores /stuff/specific/ – LB-- Nov 18 '13 at 00:00
1

@LB-- I had a similar issue, and `git check-ignore -v` told me it was because of `~/.gitignore` – gurney alex Aug 25 '14 at 12:32
@gurneyalex I found out that it fixes itself if I delete the local repo and re-clone it, it must be a bug. – LB-- Aug 25 '14 at 18:44
4

Is the /*/ necessary? – Alex Baker Apr 29 '15 at 20:25
3

This didn't work for me. I had to add `!/bin/` to my root `.gitignore` file, but then additionally I had to add a `/bin/.gitignore` file with `!*`... Making only one of those changes didn't work. It only worked after combining both changes. – Felipe Brahm Mar 18 '16 at 06:06
7

@LB and others, try `/stuff/*` and `!/stuff/specific/`. The difference is `/stuff/` tells it to ignore the stuff directory itself, `/stuff/*`says ignore all directories in the stuff directory, then don't ignore this specific directory. That made the difference for me. – reads0520 Feb 12 '19 at 16:28
To make sure it works, after updating your .gitignore as the above, run `git init`, `git add .`. – bugo99iot May 05 '20 at 11:08
@reads0520's comment worked for me. – Nesha25 Apr 22 '22 at 22:41

score 142 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 13 '12 at 15:43

142

Here how to ignore everything exept one directory "MY_SUPER_DUPER_TEMPLATE_directory" in some directory

Structure: /bitrix/templates/MY_SUPER_DUPER_TEMPLATE_directory

/*
!/bitrix
/bitrix/*
!/bitrix/templates
/bitrix/templates/*
!/bitrix/templates/MY_SUPER_DUPER_TEMPLATE_directory
*.DS_Store
*.gitignore

answered Jun 13 '12 at 15:43

Andrii Tishchenko

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This worked wonders for unignoring a laravel vendor package I had modified! Thank you, you saved me lots of headaches – Maria Vilaró May 04 '17 at 07:48

Sooth · Answer 3 · 2018-03-16T20:08:45.363

79

You must exclude everything on the way to the destinations, but you must include the destinations:

Note: This is an exclusion file (i.e. .gitignore) so the logic is inverted. Ignore all, except the tsp directory, ignore all in tsp directory, except the src directory...

/*
!/tsp
/tsp/*
!/tsp/src
/tsp/src/*
!/tsp/src/*.h
!/tsp/src/*.cpp
!/tsp/src/data.txt
!/.gitignore

edited Mar 16 '18 at 20:08

answered Jan 20 '13 at 07:27

Sooth

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+1 for the principle of including a directory, then, excluding it's contents, then, including the desired sub-directory, etc. I ended up using this answer on my projects. – John Jesus Sep 06 '13 at 15:54
Fast forward a few years and it kind of feels off that you still have to be this verbose. Specifying the final destination should be enough. – Mig82 Nov 08 '21 at 19:34

score 45 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 25 '21 at 03:38

45

The only issue you have is that the bin directory itself is not matched by the bin/* pattern so git isn't even look in the bin directory.

There are two solutions that spring to mind.

.gitignore :

*
!/bin/
!bin/*

or

.gitignore :

*
!/bin/

bin/.gitignore :

!*

I prefer the second solution as the first solution won't stop ignoring files in the bin directories that are in subdirectories that aren't called bin. This may or may not matter in your situation.

edited Feb 25 '21 at 03:38

Meetai.com

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answered Aug 08 '09 at 11:21

CB Bailey

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2

Didn't work for me. I have to have a .gitignore like this to make it work: `# Ignore everything * # But not these files... !/wp-content/ !/wp-content/plugins/ !/wp-content/plugins/my_plugin/ !/wp-content/plugins/my_plugin/*` No block code in comments? – xlttj Feb 28 '12 at 08:26
1

[Tyler's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/8594971/165673) has better single file solution – Yarin Jul 17 '12 at 12:02

score 27 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

27

From the official git doc, one of the examples says:

Example to exclude everything except a specific directory foo/bar (note the /* - without the slash, the wildcard would also exclude everything within foo/bar):

$ cat .gitignore
# exclude everything except directory foo/bar
/*
!/foo
/foo/*
!/foo/bar

For an explanation about the leading slash: When to use leading slash in gitignore.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Jul 18 '16 at 09:53

solstice333

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Thank you a million, this worked for me! Note to others that the order of the lines here is important, you can't have !/foo/bar before /foo/* for example. – Iamsodarncool Jan 24 '19 at 01:08

Kirby · Answer 6 · 2016-12-01T12:05:40.297

16

Try following in latest GIT version.

*
!*/
!/path/to/your/dir/**

edited Dec 01 '16 at 12:05

answered Sep 23 '15 at 12:11

Kirby

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it should actually be !/path/to/your/dir/** for the last line – faham Sep 10 '16 at 04:42
@faham, yep, just added it. – Kirby Nov 30 '16 at 13:20

score 12 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 05 '10 at 21:18

I think a better way would be to anchor each pattern to the top git directory by starting the pattern with a slash:

/*
!/public_html
!/.gitignore

Instead of ignoring all files it will only ignore top level files, not the ones in the directory you dont want to ignore.

score 9 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 03 '13 at 20:20

9

This .gitignore works for me:

*/
/*
!bin/

edited Jul 03 '13 at 20:20

Lesmana

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answered Apr 07 '11 at 13:50

Trianam

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greenoldman · Answer 9 · 2021-06-24T11:36:17.413

8

Late to the party, but none of the answers worked for me "out of the box". This one does:

* 
!bin
!bin/**

the first line ignores everything
the second line includes back "bin" directory itself
the last line includes back entire content of the "bin" directory no matter how nested it is (note double asterisk),

edited Jun 24 '21 at 11:36

answered Jun 24 '21 at 07:38

greenoldman

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score 6 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 09 '16 at 03:16

6

try this obscure git bug.

!bin**/**

Hope it helps :)

Supporting docs git bug sample

PS: try it first before commenting.

answered Feb 09 '16 at 03:16

david

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score 4 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 25 '19 at 23:35

4

I had to do this recently:

*
!sub-dir/
!sub-dir/*

I'm not sure why I need two lines for to exclude one folder, but this is what worked for me and macos.

answered Sep 25 '19 at 23:35

Henry

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 26 '20 at 12:25

Here is my solution. In my scenario I had a folder with subfolders as follow:

database (main folder)
- conf (subfolder)
- drivers (subfolder)
- jars (subfolder)
- sql (subfolder)

And from the database folder I wanted to push the sql folder only so my .gitignore file was as follow:

database/*
!database/sql/

Where the first line simply say ignore all subfolder(s) of the database folder and the second line meaning since you are ignoring all subfolder(s) of the database folder exclude(don't ignore) the sql subfolder

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Nov 17 '21 at 03:20

0

To me it turns out I should not ignore the parent folder but files and folders in it using /*

-- **/node_modules

++ **/node_modules/*

then

++ !node_modules/@my-package/

edited Nov 17 '21 at 03:20

Aelius

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answered Nov 15 '21 at 19:08

Mazwi Thwala

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How do I tell Git to ignore everything except a subdirectory?

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