How to create a .gitignore file

by

If you’re using Windows it will not let you create a file without a filename in Windows Explorer. It will give you the error “You must type a file name” if you try to rename a text file as .gitignore

enter image description here

To get around this I used the following steps

  1. Create the text file gitignore.txt
  2. Open it in a text editor and add your rules, then save and close
  3. Hold SHIFT, right click the folder you’re in, then select Open command window here
  4. Then rename the file in the command line, with ren gitignore.txt .gitignore

Alternatively @HenningCash suggests in the comments

You can get around this Windows Explorer error by appending a dot to
the filename without extension: .gitignore. will be automatically
changed to .gitignore

More Related Contents:

  1. Ignore files that have already been committed to a Git repository [duplicate]
  2. .gitignore exclude folder but include specific subfolder
  3. How do I configure git to ignore some files locally?
  4. Can I ‘git commit’ a file and ignore its content changes?
  5. What should be in my .gitignore for an Android Studio project?
  6. How to tell git to ignore individual lines, i.e. gitignore for specific lines of code [duplicate]
  7. Should I check in folder “node_modules” to Git when creating a Node.js app on Heroku?
  8. Using git, how do I ignore a file in one branch but have it committed in another branch?
  9. How do I add files without dots in them (all extension-less files) to the gitignore file?
  10. How do I tell Git to ignore everything except a subdirectory?
  11. Explain which gitignore rule is ignoring my file
  12. git ignore vs. exclude vs. assume-unchanged
  13. Whitelisting and subdirectories in Git
  14. When would you use .git/info/exclude instead of .gitignore to exclude files?
  15. How do .gitignore exclusion rules actually work?
  16. What is .gitignore?
  17. How to exclude file only from root folder in Git
  18. How to git ignore subfolders / subdirectories?
  19. Apply .gitignore on an existing repository already tracking large number of files
  20. What’s the difference between Git ignoring directory and directory/*?
  21. How to manage configuration files when collaborating?
  22. git still shows files as modified after adding to .gitignore
  23. Can I make a user-specific gitignore file?
  24. Git: Ignoring Version-Controlled Files
  25. How do negated patterns work in .gitignore?
  26. Why is git is ignoring files that aren’t in the .gitignore file?
  27. What to gitignore from the .idea folder?
  28. Unignore subdirectories of ignored directories in Git
  29. gitignore by file size?
  30. Commit empty folder structure (with git) [duplicate]

Leave a Comment