How do I place a dummy file in a git repo?

Question

I'm new at git so please bear with me. Say i have a file under version control that includes sensitive data. Sure enough, I put that file in my .gitignore file, so it doesn't get pushed to the repo. The problem now is somewhere in my project i have a line like ``` #include <sensitivedata> ``` or whatever your language of choice is. The problem is whenever somebody clones from that repo, that file is missing and he gets a fatal error when trying to build / compile the solution. So, instead of pushing the file I'm actually working on I want to push some dummy file with the same name instead, where I place a comment like ``` // replace the next line with the sensitive data!!! ``` How would I do this?

Accepted Answer

You could use .gitatrributes to filter the contents:

.gitattributes

```
secrets.h filter=secret merge=keepMine
```

.git/config

```
[filter "secret"]
clean  = echo "// replace the next line with the sensitive data"
smudge = cat

[merge "keepMine"]
    name = always keep mine during merge
    driver = /bin/true %O %A %B
```

I threw in a 'keepMine' merge to prevent accidental merges. However, AFAIK merge should not even kick in, as local changes would be effectively 'invisible' due to the `clean` filter step. Regardless of what's actually in `secrets.h`, the repo file will always contain:

```
// replace the next line with the sensitive data
```

E.g.:

`/tmp/work$` `echo '// agent 007 reporting for duty' > secrets.h` `/tmp/work$` `git status -s` `M secrets.h` `/tmp/work$` `git diff` `/tmp/work$` `git cat-file -p HEAD:secrets.h` `// secret contents not in repo`

How do I place a dummy file in a git repo?

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