.gitignore /folder vs folder/

Question

in .gitignore what is the difference between using

/bin

and

bin/

And how would I make it so that it removes a certain file, no matter where it is?

*/*.ext

Lara Bailey · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-02 19:17:03Z

A leading / anchors the ignore pattern at the point in the tree where the particular .gitignore resides.

A trailing / means that a pattern will only match a directory (and so all the files in that matching directory).

You can have both, e.g. /bin/ will match only a directory called bin and only at the level of the .gitignore file.

A simple *.ext will match any file ending with .ext anywhere at or below the level of the .gitignore file in which it appears.

Bronek · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-12 22:08:43Z

6

I tested the cases and also some more ones and here you can review the results:

EDIT: Corrected according to @Dan Breen's comment below (thanks!)

answered Jan 17, 2020 at 14:28

11.3k3 gold badges49 silver badges47 bronze badges

1 Comment

In the first row for bin, the last column for *.txt should be x since it would not be matched.

Dan Breen · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-02 19:15:21Z

5

The latter would match "xxx/bin" and "bin" in any other subdirectories.

Answer for your edit: *.ext would take care of all files in the repository ending w/ that ext.

answered May 2, 2011 at 19:09

13k4 gold badges40 silver badges49 bronze badges

Also answer his second question, that is, he should use .ext instead of */.ext