To get git to exclude files and directories, we need to add a .gitignore file in the root folder of the project.
Some of the things I learned from setting up my .gitignore
Assuming a .gitignore which contains the following –
.DS_Store build/ /index.html /foo/bar/baz/READTHIS.md
a file name or directory matches regardless of where it is.
So, in the example above it will ignore the .DS_Store file regardless of whether it is in the root folder or somewhere deep inside.
Also, build/ ignores that folder anywhere.
a fully qualified path name is required if the file / folder is to be ignored specifically at a location.
So, /index.html ignores the index.html file only in the root folder
And, /foo/bar/baz/READTHIS.md ignores that file only if it is present under /foo/bar/baz and doesn’t ignore it anywhere else.
all this works only if the file / folder is not already checked in!
Adding, README.md to the .gitignore will not ignore the file if it is already part of the repository.