.gitignore for Visual Studio Projects and Solution

Question

Which files should I include in .gitignore when using Git in conjunction with Visual Studio Solutions (.sln) and Projects?

Answer 1

As mentioned by another poster, Visual Studio generates this as a part of its .gitignore (at least for MVC 4):

# SQL Server files
App_Data/*.mdf
App_Data/*.ldf

Since your project may be a subfolder of your solution, and the .gitignore file is stored in the solution root, this actually won't touch the local database files (Git sees them at projectfolder/App_Data/*.mdf). To account for this, I changed those lines like so:

# SQL Server files
*App_Data/*.mdf
*App_Data/*.ldf

Answer 2

Here is what I use in my .NET Projects for my .gitignore file.

[Oo]bj/
[Bb]in/
*.suo
*.user
/TestResults
*.vspscc
*.vssscc

This is pretty much an all MS approach, that uses the built in Visual Studio tester, and a project that may have some TFS bindings in there too.

Answer 3

I know this is an old thread but for the new and the old who visit this page, there is a website called gitignore.io which can generate these files. Search "visualstudio" upon landing on the website and it will generate these files for you, also you can have multiple languages/ides ignore files concatenated into the one document.

Beautiful.

Answer 4

Credit to Jens Lehmann for this one - if you keep source directories separate to your compiler project files and build output, you could simplify your .gitignore by negating it:

path/to/build/directory/*
!*.sln
!*.vcproj

You don't say what language(s) you're using, but the above should work for C++ projects.

Answer 5

There is a shortcut in Visual Studio, because it supports Git out of the box in 2015 or above. For new solutions (or some which don't have .git folder) use source control features in Solution Explorer:

Right-click on your solution and select Add Solution to Source Control... item in the popup menu.

It automatically initializes .git repository, adds .gitignore with necessary things to your solution and even .gitattributes file (line endings, etc.).

The text will appeared in the VS console:

A new Git repository has been created for you in C:\<path to your solution>
Commit ______ created locally in repository.

Done!

Answer 6

There's an online tool which allow you to generate .gitignore file based on your OS, IDE, language, etc. Take a look at http://www.gitignore.io/.

On 8/20/2014, here's the file that is generated for Visual Studio + Windows.

# Created by http://www.gitignore.io

### VisualStudio ###
## Ignore Visual Studio temporary files, build results, and
## files generated by popular Visual Studio add-ons.

# User-specific files
*.suo
*.user
*.sln.docstates

# Build results
[Dd]ebug/
[Dd]ebugPublic/
[Rr]elease/
[Rr]eleases/
x64/
x86/
build/
bld/
[Bb]in/
[Oo]bj/

# Roslyn cache directories
*.ide/

# MSTest test Results
[Tt]est[Rr]esult*/
[Bb]uild[Ll]og.*

#NUNIT
*.VisualState.xml
TestResult.xml

# Build Results of an ATL Project
[Dd]ebugPS/
[Rr]eleasePS/
dlldata.c

*_i.c
*_p.c
*_i.h
*.ilk
*.meta
*.obj
*.pch
*.pdb
*.pgc
*.pgd
*.rsp
*.sbr
*.tlb
*.tli
*.tlh
*.tmp
*.tmp_proj
*.log
*.vspscc
*.vssscc
.builds
*.pidb
*.svclog
*.scc

# Chutzpah Test files
_Chutzpah*

# Visual C++ cache files
ipch/
*.aps
*.ncb
*.opensdf
*.sdf
*.cachefile

# Visual Studio profiler
*.psess
*.vsp
*.vspx

# TFS 2012 Local Workspace
$tf/

# Guidance Automation Toolkit
*.gpState

# ReSharper is a .NET coding add-in
_ReSharper*/
*.[Rr]e[Ss]harper
*.DotSettings.user

# JustCode is a .NET coding addin-in
.JustCode

# TeamCity is a build add-in
_TeamCity*

# DotCover is a Code Coverage Tool
*.dotCover

# NCrunch
_NCrunch_*
.*crunch*.local.xml

# MightyMoose
*.mm.*
AutoTest.Net/

# Web workbench (sass)
.sass-cache/

# Installshield output folder
[Ee]xpress/

# DocProject is a documentation generator add-in
DocProject/buildhelp/
DocProject/Help/*.HxT
DocProject/Help/*.HxC
DocProject/Help/*.hhc
DocProject/Help/*.hhk
DocProject/Help/*.hhp
DocProject/Help/Html2
DocProject/Help/html

# Click-Once directory
publish/

# Publish Web Output
*.[Pp]ublish.xml
*.azurePubxml
# TODO: Comment the next line if you want to checkin your web deploy settings 
# but database connection strings (with potential passwords) will be unencrypted
*.pubxml
*.publishproj

# NuGet Packages
*.nupkg
# The packages folder can be ignored because of Package Restore
**/packages/*
# except build/, which is used as an MSBuild target.
!**/packages/build/
# If using the old MSBuild-Integrated Package Restore, uncomment this:
#!**/packages/repositories.config

# Windows Azure Build Output
csx/
*.build.csdef

# Windows Store app package directory
AppPackages/

# Others
sql/
*.Cache
ClientBin/
[Ss]tyle[Cc]op.*
~$*
*~
*.dbmdl
*.dbproj.schemaview
*.pfx
*.publishsettings
node_modules/

# RIA/Silverlight projects
Generated_Code/

# Backup & report files from converting an old project file
# to a newer Visual Studio version. Backup files are not needed,
# because we have git ;-)
_UpgradeReport_Files/
Backup*/
UpgradeLog*.XML
UpgradeLog*.htm

# SQL Server files
*.mdf
*.ldf

# Business Intelligence projects
*.rdl.data
*.bim.layout
*.bim_*.settings

# Microsoft Fakes
FakesAssemblies/


### 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