gitignore

name

gitignore

description

Use when the user asks to add patterns to `.gitignore`, fix imprecise ignore patterns, decide between project / global / local-only ignores, or set up `.gitignore` for a new Haskell or multi-language repo. Triggers on phrases like "add to gitignore", "ignore these files", "fix gitignore", "what goes in gitignore", "global git ignore", "ignore build output", ".stack-work", "dist-newstyle", "editor files in gitignore".

.gitignore

Every non-trivial project needs a .gitignore.

What goes in a project .gitignore

• Files produced by standard build tools for the languages used in the project (e.g. .stack-work/, dist-newstyle/, /build/).
• Anything else that every developer working on this project would produce and should not commit.

If you would only ignore something because of your editor, your OS, or a tool that not everyone uses — that does not belong here. See "Global ignore" below.

Pattern precision

Always make patterns as precise as possible.

• /build/ — leading / anchors to repo root; trailing / matches only directories (and their contents).
• build — matches build anywhere in the tree, as file or directory. Usually too broad.

Example for a Haskell project at repo root:

# Build tools

## Stack
.stack-work/

## Cabal
dist-newstyle/
/.ghc.environment.*
/cabal.project.local

Multi-component repos

If the repo has independent components in subdirectories (especially with different technology stacks), put each component's language-specific ignores in a .gitignore inside that component, not in the root.

Global ignore (not in this repo)

Editor files, OS files, and personal-tool files go in your global ignore, not in the project .gitignore. The standard location is ~/.config/git/ignore (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore). Create the file if it doesn't exist.

Typical content:

# Tools
/tags
/result
/result-*

# macOS
.DS_Store

Local-only ignores (not in this repo, not in global)

For project-and-user-specific scratch or temporary files you want git to ignore without committing the rule and without globally affecting all projects: use .git/info/exclude inside the repo. This file is not synced.