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:

1. Create a new file in your project’s root directory, and call it .gitignore (remember the initial .)

2. Open .gitignore and specify the files or directories to exclude. For instance, **/DIRNAME excludes any directory called DIRNAME, while *pdf excludes all PDF files.

3. Save .gitignore and run git status in 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

Summary

Effortlessly 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.