Git Ignore Tester

What it's for

Find out why Git is ignoring a file you want to commit, or not ignoring one you don’t. A .gitignore is read from top to bottom and small details change what a pattern matches: a leading or trailing /, * against **, and whether a ! pattern can bring a file back at all.

For example, when !build/keep.txt doesn’t stop build/keep.txt being ignored, paste the file and the path here to see that the folder rule build/ is to blame, and what to write instead.

How to use it

Paste the .gitignore and the paths to test, one a line, written from the folder the .gitignore is in. End a folder’s path with /, as patterns ending in / only match folders. Each path is marked Ignored or Not ignored, with the pattern that decides it and why. Mistakes in the patterns, such as a [ that’s never closed, a backslash used as a folder separator or a non-breaking space copied from a web page, are listed above the results.

Git’s rules are followed: the last matching pattern wins; a pattern without a / (other than at the end) matches a name at any depth; one with a / is matched from the .gitignore’s folder; * and ? stop at /, and ** crosses folders. A path inside an ignored folder is ignored whatever comes later, as Git never looks inside it. Tick Ignore upper and lower case to match as Git does when core.ignoreCase is on; the choice is remembered.

Example

Press Try an example. build/keep.txt is ignored by build/ (line 2), and the table explains that !build/keep.txt can’t bring it back because its folder is ignored. logs/.gitkeep is not ignored: logs/* ignores it, but !logs/.gitkeep comes later and brings it back, which works because logs/* ignores what’s in the folder rather than the folder itself. important.log is brought back by !important.log after *.log ignores it, and src/build.js matches nothing.

Good to know

The patterns are tested as if they were in one .gitignore; Git also reads .gitignore files in sub-folders, .git/info/exclude and your global excludes file, and a file Git already tracks is never ignored. To check a real repository, run git check-ignore -v <path>. The results follow how git status treats paths; for a folder matched only by a pattern such as foo/**, git check-ignore reports foo/ as ignored, while git status still looks inside it.