How to create .gitignore file

Question

I need to add some rules to my .gitignore file, however, I can't find it in my project folder. Isn't it created automatically by Xcode? If not, what command allows me to create one?

Answer 1

My contribution is aimed at those on a mac, it can be applied to not only those working on an iOS project (as implied by the question mentioning Xcode), but any type of project.

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The easy way that i do it is to go into the terminal and run vim .gitignore and then add the files. Usually you can just copy what you need from one of the templates on Github at https://github.com/github/gitignore

Step 1
While in your project run

vim .gitnore

Step 2
You now have your file open with vim.

Press i to insert text. You will see that the file is ready when you see the --INSERT-- at the bottom.

Step 3 (option 1)
For Objective-C projects, you can copy from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gitignore/master/Objective-C.gitignore and paste it into your .gitignore

Then press esc then type in :wq then press return. Which saves the file.

Step 3 (option 2)
Add whatever files apply to your project.

If you are not sure what to add, the best keywords to use in your search engine would be to include your project type and text editor. For example, if you use Sublime you would want to add

*.sublime-workspace

And if you are working with a Cordova project in Dreamweaver you would want to add

_notes
dwsync.xml

Answer 2

To add any file in Xcode go to the menu and navigate to File -> New -> File...

For a .gitignore file choose Other -> Empty and click on Next. Type in the name (.gitignore) into the Save As field and click Create. For files starting with a dot (".") a warning message will pop up, telling you that the file will be hidden. Just click on Use "." to proceed...

That's all.

To fill your brand new .gitignore you can find an example for ignoring Xcode file here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12021580/2120348

Answer 3

The following works in Powershell and Command Prompt

echo '*.ignore_me' > .gitignore

I ran into a weird issue where git effectively wouldn't read the .gitignore file. I then deleted .gitignore file and created one using vim which worked fine.

To add additional files to ignore, just call the following command:

echo 'another_file_to_ignore' >> .gitignore

It will append further files to the existing .gitignore file.

Answer 4

The .gitignore file is not added to a repository by default. Use vi or your favorite text editor to create the .gitignore file then issue a git add .gitignore followed by git commit -m "message" .gitignore. The following commands will take care of it.

> .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "message" .gitignore

Answer 5

in windows, open a dos prompt(cmd) windows, use command line:

type > .gitignore

Answer 6

Without using command line

1. Open texteditor and add your rules.
2. Click File->Save As
3. Save it as ".gitignore" (include the quotations)