.gitignore Everything by Default

#1

Post by der_gopher » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 1:19 PM UTC

.gitignore Everything by Default
packagemain.tech

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#2

Post by matthewmc3 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

I'm not convinced about ignoring everything, but one of the best changes I ever made to my git workflow was ignoring all dotfiles by default by adding `.*` to ~/.config/git/ignore.

My projects do now have to have a boiler plate of unignoring the common ones (!.gitignore, !.gitattributes, !.github, !.editorconfig, etc), but then I'm free at any point to throw .foo.lang files, or .tmp/.cache dirs, or Claude helpers like .code_analysis.md, or .todos.txt, or whatever in my project without managing the fallout of forgetting to manage the .gitignore. I'm surprised more people don't go this route.

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#3

Post by der_gopher » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 1:46 PM UTC

matthewmc3 wrote: post #2

I'm not convinced about ignoring everything, but one of the best changes I ever made to my git workflow was ignoring all dotfiles by default by adding `.*` to ~/.config/git/ignore. My projects do now have to have a boiler plate of unignoring the common ones (!.gitignore, !.gitattributes, !.github, !.editorconfig, etc), but then I'm free at any point to throw .foo.lang files, or .tmp/.cache dirs, or Claude helpers lik…

I do the same

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#4

Post by caseyw » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

I don’t ignore by default, but only stage the items I explicitly want.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been pairing with someone when they just say “git add .”, I’m always confused by that choice.

I get it, but I’ve seen more problems arise from adding all than being consistently selective. To each their own.

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#5

Post by Lindby » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

`git add -p` is your friend to avoid adding unintended files/changes.

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#6

Post by flexagoon » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

> other junk (CLAUDE.md for example) that shouldn’t be in your repository

How is CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md "junk that shouldn't be in your repository"? If you're using agents for a project and have some project-specific rules for them, why would you want other people using agents in your repository to not have access to those rules and produce worse code?

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#7

Post by GranPC » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

matthewmc3 wrote: post #2

I'm not convinced about ignoring everything, but one of the best changes I ever made to my git workflow was ignoring all dotfiles by default by adding `.*` to ~/.config/git/ignore. My projects do now have to have a boiler plate of unignoring the common ones (!.gitignore, !.gitattributes, !.github, !.editorconfig, etc), but then I'm free at any point to throw .foo.lang files, or .tmp/.cache dirs, or Claude helpers lik…

Couldn't you put !.gitignore et al in your global config file?

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#8

Post by outloudvi » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

If people want to apply this mechanism, it shall be not much of a hassle for writers of most (modern) programming languages, as they mostly have some `src/` directory (maybe also some `tests/`) that contains all source codes for a quick `git add`.

For Golang users, I dunno...

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#9

Post by flexagoon » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

matthewmc3 wrote: post #2

I'm not convinced about ignoring everything, but one of the best changes I ever made to my git workflow was ignoring all dotfiles by default by adding `.*` to ~/.config/git/ignore. My projects do now have to have a boiler plate of unignoring the common ones (!.gitignore, !.gitattributes, !.github, !.editorconfig, etc), but then I'm free at any point to throw .foo.lang files, or .tmp/.cache dirs, or Claude helpers lik…

I have `playground/` in my ignore config, that way I can just create a playground directory for any project and do stuff in there

Re: .gitignore Everything by Default

#10

Post by rcfox » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:46 PM UTC

This seems like bad advice. I've very rarely committed extra files by accident, but I would 100% forget to unignore files I meant to commit.

If you're doing an initial setup step to gitignore everything, why not just do an initial setup step to gitignore the usual files? Make a template that you copy into all of your repos.