Patterns

Learn the .gitignore pattern syntax.

Matching files with patterns

You can use wildcard characters in .gitignore to ignore multiple files with a single rule. * matches any number of characters, while ? matches exactly one character. These characters allow you to avoid listing every file name separately.

# All temporary files
*.tmp

# One-character variation
file?.txt

Patterns determine which items are ignored based on their names.

Directory and exception patterns

You can ignore a directory by adding / at the end of its pattern. For example, cache/ ignores the directory. To override an earlier rule, add ! at the beginning of a line so that a specific file can be excluded from the ignore rule.

# Ignore a directory
cache/

# Keep a specific file
!cache/keep.txt

For an exception rule to work, the file's parent directories must not themselves be excluded.

Exercise Create directory and file patterns

Write two rules in .gitignore that ignore the build/ directory and all files with the .bak extension. Each rule must be on a separate line.

Show example solution

# Klasör kuralı
build/
# Dosya uzantısı kuralı
*.bak

Test yourself

Which pattern is suitable for ignoring both report.txt and backup.txt?
- file?.log
- backup/
- *.txt
- report.txt
Show answer

*.txt — <code>*.txt</code> matches files with the .txt extension regardless of their names.

Use a single-character wildcard

# Yalnızca tek karakter farklılığı olan dosyalar
file____

Show answer

# Yalnızca tek karakter farklılığı olan dosyalar
file?.txt

Pattern characters

*

Zero or more characters
?

Exactly one character
cache/

Ignores a directory
!

Overrides an earlier rule

Next lesson: Global ignore

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