Can I make a user-specific gitignore file?

Question

I want to change the gitignore, but not everyone on the team wants these changes. How can a user have their own specific git ignore file?

Answer 1

For example, you want ignore ~/some/path/.idea folder:

# 1. Add .idea to user specific gitignore file
echo .idea > ~/.gitignore

# 2. Add gitignore file to gitconfig
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore

Answer 2

For user-specific and repo-specific file ignoring you should populate the following file:

$GIT_DIR/info/exclude

Usually $GIT_DIR stands for:

your_repo_path/.git/

Answer 3

In their .gitconfig:

[core]
    excludesfile = ~/.global_gitignore

That way, they can ignore certain types of files globally. Each user can have their own global ignore file.

Answer 4

You can create your own .gitignore using

git config --global core.excludesfile $HOME/.gitignore

Then put your desired entries in that file.