Re: getting git to ignore modifications to specific files

From: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Date: Sep 2, 2010, 10:20 UTC
Message-ID: <4C7F7A57.4030504@drmicha.warpmail.net>
In-Reply-To: <4C7EA1FF.8030307@gmail.com>

Chris Packham venit, vidit, dixit 01.09.2010 20:57:

Show 23 quoted lines

> Hi,
> 
> We have a git repository that as some GNU build system (a.k.a.
> autotools) files, my current problem is with the INSTALL file but I
> suspect there may be some others. These can get modified if you are
> running a different version of autotools from when the files were created.
> 
> I've had various arguments about which autotools files should or
> shouldn't be included in our repositories. My general rule of thumb is
> that if it is automatically generated then it shouldn't go into the
> repository.
> 
> There are a couple of repositories that are local clones of 3rd party
> repositories which have included the pesky auto-generated files so whle
> I can remove the offending files from repositories we control I need
> another solution for the 3rd part ones.
> 
> I did a bit of googling and found
>   git update-index --assume-unchanged
> 
> Which works locally to stop git status from complaining. Is there anyway
> for me to make a change to our clone (a .gitattribues entry?) so that
> everyone can get this by default?

For tracking my git configuration including .gitk, I used

[filter "dotgitk"]
        clean = fgrep -v geometry

together with an appropriate attribute for gitk.

I don't know how your autogenerated files differ, but maybe you can set up a filter (or custom diff driver) which makes git think the files are equal though they are not, just like in my case (ignoring window geometry changes for gitk).

Michael