.gitignore whitelist on directory and its contents

git, gitignore

Solution

You can use 2 `.gitignore` files to achieve the desired result:

# vendor/.gitignore
*
!.gitignore
!SupplierName/
!SupplierName/*

# vendor/SupplierName/.gitignore
!*

I tested this with a test repo and seems to work for me in adding files as many levels deep underneath the `vendor/SupplierName` directory.

$ git add .

$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   modified:   vendor/.gitignore
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/.gitignore
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/a
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/b
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/c
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/d
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/d
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/dir4/dir5/dir6/dir7/dir8/dir9/dir10/somefile
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/dir4/f1
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/dir4/f2
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/dir4/f3
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/dir4/f4
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/e
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir1/f
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir3/dir6/f5
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir3/dir6/f6
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir3/dir6/f7
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/dir3/dir7/f8
#   new file:   vendor/SupplierName/e
#

Problem

I'm trying to whitelist the directory (and its contents) SupplierName in my Zend Framework 2 vendor directory. The original .gitignore file in /vendor looks like this: ``` # Add here the vendor path to be whitelisted # Ex: for composer directory write here "!composer" (without quotes) !.gitignore * ``` Now I'd like to whitelist the directory SupplierName which shouldn't be too hard I thought. I have read the docs on gitignore and tried the following configurations: First try, add !SupplierName right after the comment which says that I have to add the whitelisted path here. ``` # Add here the vendor path to be whitelisted !SupplierName # Ex: for composer directory write here "!composer" (without quotes) !.gitignore * ``` Right after that I executed `git status` which didn't show the vendor/SupplierName directory. `git add vendor/SupplierName` showed the following message: The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files: vendor/SupplierName Second try ``` # Add here the vendor path to be whitelisted # Ex: for composer directory write here "!composer" (without quotes) !SupplierName !.gitignore * ``` Right after that I executed `git status` which didn't show the vendor/SupplierName directory. `git add vendor/SupplierName` showed the following message: The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files: vendor/SupplierName Third try ``` # Add here the vendor path to be whitelisted # Ex: for composer directory write here "!composer" (without quotes) !.gitignore * !SupplierName ``` Right after that I executed `git status` which didn't show the vendor/SupplierName directory. `git add vendor/SupplierName` seems to work. But now, when I want to add the Module.php file (and some other files, subdirectories, etc) the following happens. `git add vendor/SupplierName/Module.php` --> The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files: vendor/SupplierName/Module.php ``` # Add here the vendor path to be whitelisted # Ex: for composer directory write here "!composer" (without quotes) * !.gitignore !SupplierName !SupplierName/ !SupplierName/* ``` Allows me to add files directly in vendor/SupplierName, but `git add vendor/SupplierName/config/module.config.php` still results in The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files: vendor/SupplierName/config/module.config.php I've been searching for problems regarding recursive whitelisting, because that seems to be the problem, but nothing came up.

Original source

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