configure-global-gitignore-file.md

Configure Global gitignore File

There are some files that you know you'll never want tracked by git. You don't even want them showing up as an option. For these files, it can be nice to specify them in a global .gitignore file. Then you don't need to specify them for each project.

This can be configured in ~/.gitconfig under the core settings as excludesFile.

[core]
	excludesFile = ~/.gitignore

Then, create ~/.gitignore (that's as good a place as any to put it).

# global .gitignore
.DS_Store
wip_notes.md

You'll now notice that for any git project, the files you listed won't be showing up in the untracked list.

You can also add this to your ~/.gitconfig with this one-line command.

$ git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore

See man git-config and search core.excludesFile for more details.