How to Add a .gitignore File to an Existing Repository

This article outlines the steps to apply a .gitignore file to an existing repository in Git. The .gitignore file allows us to dictate what Git will not track in our repository.

If you have an existing Git repo with dozens of tracked files, you can apply the .gitignore file by following these simple steps.

Add a .gitignore File to an Existing Repository

We must commit all pending changes in our repository to add a .gitignore file to an existing repo. Once done, we can proceed to the second step.

Create and add the .gitignore file to your local repository. We will then have to remove all files from the index by running the command below.

$ git rm -r --cached .

Note the . at the end. It instructs Git to remove all the files in our local repository from the index.

If you only have one file you want to include in the .gitignore file, you can feed in the filename, as shown below.

$ git rm --cached filename

Make sure you have added your .gitignore file to the repo and run the command below.

$ git add .

This will add all our files to the index, including the .gitignore file. We can then commit the changes for the file to take effect.

$ git commit -m "Gitignore added"

This file will instruct Git to stop tracking files in the .gitignore file. It is an easy way to untrack large numbers of files.

We can push the changes to the remote repository using the git push command.

In conclusion, Git allows you to add a .gitignore file to an existing repository to stop tracking certain files. Always commit your changes before proceeding with the git add . step.

Failure to which you will lose all your file changes. Be cautious when pushing and pulling from this repository.