# Can the git exclude files mask out whole directories? 2 messages from 2006-09-18 to 2006-09-18. Participants: Alex Bennee, Shawn Pearce. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/5600 ## Alex Bennee, 2006-09-18 18:28 Subject: Can the git exclude files mask out whole directories? Message-ID: <1158604087.28026.160.camel@okra.transitives.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/1158604087.28026.160.camel%40okra.transitives.com ``` Hi, I may be being a bit dim but according to the man page I should be able to specify paths with /'s in them. I want to exclude all CVS directories so I can commit stuff. I have tried: # # Ignore CVS files # */CVS/* Amongst many variants and: git-ls-files --others --exclude-from=.git/info/exclude And all my CVS directories still get listed. I can get what I want with adding: # Ignore CVS files # Entries Entries.Log Repository Root Tag to my exclude file but that seems suboptimal. Besides I'll also want to be ignoring whole build directories later. Have I subtly misunderstood the man page? Confused, -- Alex, homepage: http://www.bennee.com/~alex/ Majority, n.: That quality that distinguishes a crime from a law. ``` ## Shawn Pearce, 2006-09-18 18:32 Subject: Re: Can the git exclude files mask out whole directories? Message-ID: <20060918183220.GA31371@spearce.org> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20060918183220.GA31371%40spearce.org In-Reply-To: <1158604087.28026.160.camel@okra.transitives.com> ``` Alex Bennee wrote: > I may be being a bit dim but according to the man page I should be able > to specify paths with /'s in them. I want to exclude all CVS directories > so I can commit stuff. I have tried: > > # > # Ignore CVS files > # > */CVS/* Just use CVS in your info/exclude file: # # Ignore CVS files # CVS > to my exclude file but that seems suboptimal. Besides I'll also want to > be ignoring whole build directories later. Have I subtly misunderstood > the man page? I ignore my build directories all the time by just putting their names in .gitignore, with no trailing /. -- Shawn. ```