How to ignore untracked files when I switch to a branch?

Question

I created a repository with two branches. The first branch contains a Unity project and a .gitignore file that generates GitHub. The other branch has latex files to create the documentation and other .gitignore file that is generated by GitHub too.

When I am working in the doc branch and I compile my latex files, they generate a main.syctex.gz file which is ignored by my .gitignore. Everything until here is ok. However, when I type git push -u origin doc and I switch the doc branch to the master branch, the file ignored (main.syctex.gz) appears in the master branch.

I know that if I type git clean -f -d I can clean the Doc folder that contains main.syctex.gz in the master branch. But, I would be grateful if someone can tell me another option to fix this problem.

Are there any files you want ignored in one branch and **not** in the other? It might be better to have the same gitignore settings across both, just using the union of the current separate settings. — jonrsharpe, Oct 15 '17 at 10:08
Yes! In the `mater` branch I have a `.gitignore` for ignoring files from Unity and in the `doc`branch I ignore files from Latex. — CrisGmz, Oct 15 '17 at 10:13
Yes, but I'm saying could you not just ignore both in both branches? And don't revert legitimate edits. — jonrsharpe, Oct 15 '17 at 10:14
are you saying that I place both `.gitignore` in both branches? — CrisGmz, Oct 15 '17 at 10:22
You can only have one file of that name, but I'm suggesting you combine their contents to a single shared version. — jonrsharpe, Oct 15 '17 at 10:23
It sounds like you are using separate branches to hold what should really be in separate repositories. — Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Oct 19 '17 at 07:01

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 15 '17 at 10:14

0

Another option would be two have two different workspaces (working trees) for the same cloned (cloned only once) repository.

See git worktree: you can then work on both branches without worrying about the checkout part.

answered Oct 15 '17 at 10:14

VonC

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Thank you for your help! – CrisGmz Oct 15 '17 at 11:03
@CrisGmz of course, ignoring both set of files in one .gitignore works too, but I prefer avoiding data leaking from one branch to another, ie avoiding that one branch has to known about files from another branch. – VonC Oct 15 '17 at 11:04
You are right. I'll take it into account for future repositories. Thanks again! – CrisGmz Oct 15 '17 at 11:09

How to ignore untracked files when I switch to a branch?

1 Answers1