.gitignore not working: files that should be ignor

Question

I'm trying to create a new git repository from existing folder. I've created a .gitignore file in the root of the folder. But if I say

git add *
git commit
git push

files that should be ignored still get committed to the remote repository. I'm on Windows. Also I've bought a license for SmartGIT. It also seems to ignore .gitignore. I have to manually select which new files to commit.

Answer 1

Comment line as the first line of the file is critical! I spent considerable time trying to exclude files only to find that GIT was ignoring the first line in the ignore file.

Answer 2

I've had issues with .gitignore also. I checked out the linked answers listed about, which fixed half the issue.

What really got gitignore working full for me was adding a comment on the first line of the file. Git wasn't parsing the exclude situated on the first line.

Cheers

Answer 3

Are your files already tracked? .gitignore only silences comments about untracked files, but won't stop a tracked file from being tracked.

Answer 4

Try "git add ." instead.

Also, it works for me (on Linux):

$ git init
$ echo foo > .gitignore
$ echo foo > foo
$ echo bar > bar
$ git add -v *
The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files:
foo
Use -f if you really want to add them.
fatal: no files added

Answer 5

Probably your exclude file mask is inacurate.

Answer 6

You could have created a UTF-8 encoded text file. Try saving it as ANSI encoded. In git bash, you can verify by using vi -b.