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Overview
In this building block, you will learn how to exclude files and directories from versioning, optimizing your Git/GitHub workflow.
By default, Git/GitHub tracks all files you create. However, there are instances where you want to exclude specific files, such as:
- Large data files unfit for GitHub uploads
- Automatically generated code files (that hence do not need to be versioned)
- Sensitive passwords inadvertently stored in your code
The file and directory exclusion technique
Luckily, Git offers a convenient way to exclude files and directories from versioning. Here’s how you do it:
-
Create a new file in your project’s root directory, and call it
.gitignore(remember the initial.) -
Open
.gitignoreand specify the files or directories to exclude. For instance,**/DIRNAMEexcludes any directory calledDIRNAME, while*pdfexcludes all PDF files. -
Save
.gitignoreand rungit statusin your repository - the excluded files and directories won’t show up anymore!
Example
For inspiration, explore some example .gitignore files, or copy-paste the following to your own .gitignore:
**/rbin/
**/raw/
*RData
*pdf
**/audit
**/input
**/output
**/temp
**/zip
*csv
*xlsx
*~*
*log
*.Rhistory
**/exports
**.ipynb_checkpoints
**__pycache__
*.log
slides/*.gz
slides/*.snm
slides/*.toc
slides/*.nav
slides/*.out
slides/*.aux
.RProfile
SummaryEffortlessly enhance your version control by employing this file and directory exclusion technique: create a .gitignore file in which you specify the directories and files you would like to be excluded from versioning.