Best general SVN Ignore Pattern?

Question

What is the best (or as good as possible) general SVN ignore pattern to use?

There are a number of different IDE, editor, compiler, plug-in, platform, etc. specific files and some file types that "overlap" (i.e. desirable for some types projects and not for others).

There are however, a large number of file types that you just never want included in source control automatically regardless the specifics of your development environment.

The answer to this question would serve as a good starting point for any project - only requiring them to add the few environment specific items they need. It could be adapted for other Version Control Systems (VCS) as well.

Answer 1

Visual Studio (VC++) users definitely need to exclude the .ncb files

Answer 2

gitignore.io provides configurable patterns for git. They provide a readable list, which you need to reformat for SVN.

For instance, requesting MicrosoftOffice and Windows returns

# Created by https://www.gitignore.io/api/microsoftoffice,windows

### MicrosoftOffice ###
*.tmp

# Word temporary
~$*.doc*

# Excel temporary
~$*.xls*

# Excel Backup File
*.xlk

# PowerPoint temporary
~$*.ppt*

# Visio autosave temporary files
*.~vsdx


### Windows ###
# Windows image file caches
Thumbs.db
ehthumbs.db

# Folder config file
Desktop.ini

# Recycle Bin used on file shares
$RECYCLE.BIN/

# Windows Installer files
*.cab
*.msi
*.msm
*.msp

# Windows shortcuts
*.lnk

It seems that it can be directly used as svn:global-ignore

Answer 3

I'll add my own two cents to this question:

I use the following SVN ignore pattern with TortoiseSVN and Subversion CLI for native C++, C#/VB.NET, and PERL projects on both Windows and Linux platforms. It works well for me!

Formatted for copy and paste:

*.o *.lo *.la #*# .*.rej *.rej .*~ *~ .#* .DS_Store thumbs.db Thumbs.db *.bak *.class *.exe *.dll *.mine *.obj *.ncb *.lib *.log *.idb *.pdb *.ilk *.msi* .res *.pch *.suo *.exp *.*~ *.~* ~*.* cvs CVS .CVS .cvs release Release debug Debug ignore Ignore bin Bin obj Obj *.csproj.user *.user *.generated.cs

Formatted for readability:

*.o *.lo *.la #*# .*.rej *.rej
.*~ *~ .#* .DS_Store thumbs.db 
Thumbs.db *.bak *.class *.exe *.dll
*.mine *.obj *.ncb *.lib *.log 
*.idb *.pdb *.ilk *.msi* .res *.pch *.suo 
*.exp *.*~ *.~* ~*.* cvs  CVS .CVS .cvs  
release Release debug Debug
ignore Ignore bin Bin obj  Obj
*.csproj.user *.user
*.generated.cs

Answer 4

Windows users might want to throw in desktop.ini and thumbs.db.

Answer 5

gitignore.io provides configurable patterns for git. They provide a readable list, which you need to reformat for SVN.

For instance, requesting MicrosoftOffice and Windows returns

# Created by https://www.gitignore.io/api/microsoftoffice,windows

### MicrosoftOffice ###
*.tmp

# Word temporary
~$*.doc*

# Excel temporary
~$*.xls*

# Excel Backup File
*.xlk

# PowerPoint temporary
~$*.ppt*

# Visio autosave temporary files
*.~vsdx


### Windows ###
# Windows image file caches
Thumbs.db
ehthumbs.db

# Folder config file
Desktop.ini

# Recycle Bin used on file shares
$RECYCLE.BIN/

# Windows Installer files
*.cab
*.msi
*.msm
*.msp

# Windows shortcuts
*.lnk

Answer 6

Visual Studio 2010 users should add ipch (a folder which contains C++ precompiled headers) and *.sdf (huge files used by intellisense for any kind of project).