Mercurial: How to ignore changes to a tracked file

Question

I have a file with database settings in my project which I have set to some defaults. The file is tracked by Mercurial and checked in. Since this file will be edited with different values various developer machines, is there a way I can tell Mercurial to ignore new changes to this file?

I tried adding the file to the .hgignore file, but since the file is tracked it isn't ignored. This is alright and good in other situations, but I am wondering if there is something I can do here?

Answer 1

Using a file template is definitely the best solution. For example, if you have a database.ini file, commit a database.ini.template file and ignore database.ini in .hgignore

Answer 2

If the file is already being tracked, you can issue the Forget command to the file. If you're using TortoiseHg just right click the file during commit and select Forget. The file must also be already in the ignore list.

I had the same problem as yours, I file keeps on appearing on every commit even-though its already in the ignore list. I tried the Forget command and it did the trick.