How to do exception in .gitignore if I am using wildcards for folder path in ignore?

Question

I am aware this was asked here and answered, however no answer covers when the ignoring line uses wildcards...

I have the following line in .gitignore:

**/_secrets

Now I would like to add one exception to this using the ! syntax:

!**/_secrets/not_a_secret.txt

However this does not seem to work.

What I've tried:

!**/not_a_secret.txt
!**/_secrets/not_a_secret.txt
!(**/_secrets/not_a_secret.txt)

I've also tried to change **/_secrets to **/_secrets/ still does not work, all files in the _secrets folder are ignored, with no exception of not_a_secret.txt file.

What am I missing?

VonC_6309 · Answer

The general rule of gitignore is simple:

It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded.

To exclude files (or all files) from a subfolder of an ignored folder f, you would do:

**/_secrets/
!**/_secrets/**/
!**/_secrets/**/not_a_secret.txt

Meaning: you need to whitelist folders first, before being able to exclude from gitignore files.

How to do exception in .gitignore if I am using wildcards for folder path in ignore?

1 Answers