gitignore not working: A simple Step-by-step method to ignore files or folders already committed to a git repo

Introduction: About the .gitignore file.

gitignore not working? the .gitignore file specifies intentionally untracked files to be ignored in the commit history index. Each line in a gitignore file specifies a pattern. The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not tracked by Git remain untracked. Files already tracked by Git are not affected and can not be ignored.

The Problem: .gitignore is not working

If you added or committed files or folders to your git repository, but later decided to ignore those files or folders (maybe for security reasons) by adding them to your .gitignore file. You would quickly observe that the recently ignored files still show up in your git repo index. This is because your initial git add . command directed Git to “save” a snapshot of the current project state, into the commit history and once that snapshot has been saved, certain parts of it cannot be ignored.

Also, gitignore will not work if the .gitignore file is saved in UTF-16LE encoding, and not in UTF8 encoding.

To summarize, gitignore won’t work if you saved the gitignore file in UTF-16LE encoding; also, the Files or folders already tracked by Git cannot be ignored, even if you add them to the .gitignore file. Only untracked files can be ignored.

The Solution

Since only untracked files can be ignored. We will have to reset the snapshot to untrack all files.

Step 1: Ensure that the .gitignore file is saved properly

open the gitignore file with a text editor like vscode or notepad. when the file is opened, check the footer bar, you would see the current file encoding. if its UTF8, then you are ready to move to step 2

However, if you notice that the encoding is not UTF8, you can click the “Save as” to save the file with the UTF8 or ANSI encoding.

Step 2: Commit all your changes

Your next move will be to capture a snapshot of the project’s currently staged change by committing all files including the .gitignore file or any other file/folder you may or may not want to ignore. Ensure that your .gitignore file has all files you want removed from commit history.

Step 3: Remove all files from the git repo’s index only

Remove all files from your repo’s index, to reset the last git snapshot. With this done, when adding your files to the commit history again, Git will recognize the .gitignore file and its instructions, thus not committing them to the new snapshot.

git rm -r --cached .

• git rm will remove files from your working tree and the index. However, we want to remove it from only the repo index and not the working tree. so we used --cached
• --cached allows the file to be removed from just the index. The . indicates that all files will be untracked
• -r allow for recursive removal (that is, to remove a directory and all its contents, including any subdirectories and files) when a leading directory name is given.

Step 4: Add all files

use the git add . command to add tracking on all files. This time, Git will honour the .gitignore file instructions since the files are now untracked.

Step 5: Commit your Changes

Commit your tracked files.

git commit -m ".gitIgnore Fix" -m "removed files from index, saved .gitignore rules, then add all files back to commit"

Step 6: Check gitignore status

check the current gitignore status to see if the files are now being ignored.

git status --ignored

Bonus Info: gitignore file template example

A gitignore template should contain a set of rules to help Git repositories work with a specific programming language, framework, tool or environment. You may check out my comprehensive list of gitignore file templates. Depending on your project environment, you may select and use these template lists to populate your .gitignore file when creating new repositories and files.

Below are the most common files to ignore in your project repository.

node_modules
.gitignore
package.json
package-lock.json

## Ignore Visual Studio temporary files, build results, and
## files generated by popular Visual Studio add-ons.
##
## Get latest from https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/main/VisualStudio.gitignore

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

# User-specific files (MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio)
*.userprefs

# Mono auto generated files
mono_crash.*

# Build results
[Dd]ebug/
[Dd]ebugPublic/
[Rr]elease/
[Rr]eleases/
x64/
x86/
[Ww][Ii][Nn]32/
[Aa][Rr][Mm]/
[Aa][Rr][Mm]64/
bld/
[Bb]in/
[Oo]bj/
[Ll]og/
[Ll]ogs/

# Visual Studio 2015/2017 cache/options directory
.vs/
# Uncomment if you have tasks that create the project's static files in wwwroot
#wwwroot/

# Visual Studio 2017 auto generated files
Generated\ Files/

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

# NUnit
*.VisualState.xml
TestResult.xml
nunit-*.xml

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

# Benchmark Results
BenchmarkDotNet.Artifacts/

# .NET Core
project.lock.json
project.fragment.lock.json
artifacts/

# ASP.NET Scaffolding
ScaffoldingReadMe.txt

# StyleCop
StyleCopReport.xml

# Files built by Visual Studio
*_i.c
*_p.c
*_h.h
*.ilk
*.meta
*.obj
*.iobj
*.pch
*.pdb
*.ipdb
*.pgc
*.pgd
*.rsp
*.sbr
*.tlb
*.tli
*.tlh
*.tmp
*.tmp_proj
*_wpftmp.csproj
*.log
*.tlog
*.vspscc
*.vssscc
.builds
*.pidb
*.svclog
*.scc

# Chutzpah Test files
_Chutzpah*

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

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

# Visual Studio Trace Files
*.e2e

# TFS 2012 Local Workspace
$tf/

# Guidance Automation Toolkit
*.gpState

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

# TeamCity is a build add-in
_TeamCity*

# DotCover is a Code Coverage Tool
*.dotCover

# AxoCover is a Code Coverage Tool
.axoCover/*
!.axoCover/settings.json

# Coverlet is a free, cross platform Code Coverage Tool
coverage*.json
coverage*.xml
coverage*.info

# Visual Studio code coverage results
*.coverage
*.coveragexml

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

# 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
# Note: 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

# Microsoft Azure Web App publish settings. Comment the next line if you want to
# checkin your Azure Web App publish settings, but sensitive information contained
# in these scripts will be unencrypted
PublishScripts/

# NuGet Packages
*.nupkg
# NuGet Symbol Packages
*.snupkg
# The packages folder can be ignored because of Package Restore
**/[Pp]ackages/*
# except build/, which is used as an MSBuild target.
!**/[Pp]ackages/build/
# Uncomment if necessary however generally it will be regenerated when needed
#!**/[Pp]ackages/repositories.config
# NuGet v3's project.json files produces more ignorable files
*.nuget.props
*.nuget.targets

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

# Microsoft Azure Emulator
ecf/
rcf/

# Windows Store app package directories and files
AppPackages/
BundleArtifacts/
Package.StoreAssociation.xml
_pkginfo.txt
*.appx
*.appxbundle
*.appxupload

# Visual Studio cache files
# files ending in .cache can be ignored
*.[Cc]ache
# but keep track of directories ending in .cache
!?*.[Cc]ache/

# Others
ClientBin/
~$*
*~
*.dbmdl
*.dbproj.schemaview
*.jfm
*.pfx
*.publishsettings
orleans.codegen.cs

# Including strong name files can present a security risk
# (https://github.com/github/gitignore/pull/2483#issue-259490424)
#*.snk

# Since there are multiple workflows, uncomment next line to ignore bower_components
# (https://github.com/github/gitignore/pull/1529#issuecomment-104372622)
#bower_components/

# 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
ServiceFabricBackup/
*.rptproj.bak

# SQL Server files
*.mdf
*.ldf
*.ndf

# Business Intelligence projects
*.rdl.data
*.bim.layout
*.bim_*.settings
*.rptproj.rsuser
*- [Bb]ackup.rdl
*- [Bb]ackup ([0-9]).rdl
*- [Bb]ackup ([0-9][0-9]).rdl

# Microsoft Fakes
FakesAssemblies/

# GhostDoc plugin setting file
*.GhostDoc.xml

# Node.js Tools for Visual Studio
.ntvs_analysis.dat
node_modules/
# Logs
logs
*.log
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*
lerna-debug.log*
.pnpm-debug.log*

# Diagnostic reports (https://nodejs.org/api/report.html)
report.[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*.json

# Runtime data
pids
*.pid
*.seed
*.pid.lock

# Directory for instrumented libs generated by jscoverage/JSCover
lib-cov

# Coverage directory used by tools like istanbul
coverage
*.lcov

# nyc test coverage
.nyc_output

# Grunt intermediate storage (https://gruntjs.com/creating-plugins#storing-task-files)
.grunt

# Bower dependency directory (https://bower.io/)
bower_components

# node-waf configuration
.lock-wscript

# Compiled binary addons (https://nodejs.org/api/addons.html)
build/Release

# Dependency directories
node_modules/
jspm_packages/

# Snowpack dependency directory (https://snowpack.dev/)
web_modules/

# TypeScript cache
*.tsbuildinfo

# Optional npm cache directory
.npm

# Optional eslint cache
.eslintcache

# Optional stylelint cache
.stylelintcache

# Microbundle cache
.rpt2_cache/
.rts2_cache_cjs/
.rts2_cache_es/
.rts2_cache_umd/

# Optional REPL history
.node_repl_history

# Output of 'npm pack'
*.tgz

# Yarn Integrity file
.yarn-integrity

# dotenv environment variable files
.env
.env.development.local
.env.test.local
.env.production.local
.env.local

# parcel-bundler cache (https://parceljs.org/)
.cache
.parcel-cache

# Next.js build output
.next
out

# Nuxt.js build / generate output
.nuxt
dist

# Gatsby files
.cache/
# Comment in the public line in if your project uses Gatsby and not Next.js
# https://nextjs.org/blog/next-9-1#public-directory-support
# public

# vuepress build output
.vuepress/dist

# vuepress v2.x temp and cache directory
.temp
.cache

# Docusaurus cache and generated files
.docusaurus

# Serverless directories
.serverless/

# FuseBox cache
.fusebox/

# DynamoDB Local files
.dynamodb/

# TernJS port file
.tern-port

# Stores VSCode versions used for testing VSCode extensions
.vscode-test

# yarn v2
.yarn/cache
.yarn/unplugged
.yarn/build-state.yml
.yarn/install-state.gz
.pnp.*

# Visual Studio 6 build log
*.plg

# Visual Studio 6 workspace options file
*.opt

# Visual Studio 6 auto-generated workspace file (contains which files were open etc.)
*.vbw

# Visual Studio 6 auto-generated project file (contains which files were open etc.)
*.vbp

# Visual Studio 6 workspace and project file (working project files containing files to include in project)
*.dsw
*.dsp

# Visual Studio 6 technical files 
*.ncb
*.aps

# Visual Studio LightSwitch build output
**/*.HTMLClient/GeneratedArtifacts
**/*.DesktopClient/GeneratedArtifacts
**/*.DesktopClient/ModelManifest.xml
**/*.Server/GeneratedArtifacts
**/*.Server/ModelManifest.xml
_Pvt_Extensions

# Paket dependency manager
.paket/paket.exe
paket-files/

# FAKE - F# Make
.fake/

# CodeRush personal settings
.cr/personal

# Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS)
__pycache__/
*.pyc

# Cake - Uncomment if you are using it
# tools/**
# !tools/packages.config

# Tabs Studio
*.tss

# Telerik's JustMock configuration file
*.jmconfig

# BizTalk build output
*.btp.cs
*.btm.cs
*.odx.cs
*.xsd.cs

# OpenCover UI analysis results
OpenCover/

# Azure Stream Analytics local run output
ASALocalRun/

# MSBuild Binary and Structured Log
*.binlog

# NVidia Nsight GPU debugger configuration file
*.nvuser

# MFractors (Xamarin productivity tool) working folder
.mfractor/

# Local History for Visual Studio
.localhistory/

# Visual Studio History (VSHistory) files
.vshistory/

# BeatPulse healthcheck temp database
healthchecksdb

# Backup folder for Package Reference Convert tool in Visual Studio 2017
MigrationBackup/

# Ionide (cross platform F# VS Code tools) working folder
.ionide/

# Fody - auto-generated XML schema
FodyWeavers.xsd

# VS Code files for those working on multiple tools
.vscode/*
!.vscode/settings.json
!.vscode/tasks.json
!.vscode/launch.json
!.vscode/extensions.json
*.code-workspace

# Local History for Visual Studio Code
.history/

# Windows Installer files from build outputs
*.cab
*.msi
*.msix
*.msm
*.msp

# JetBrains Rider
*.sln.iml