Add newly created specific folder to .gitignore in Git

I had a clean working directory and brought in a clone from a Git repo last night. But now my local server created and contains a stats folder which I want to ignore.

I can't seem to get Git to ignore this folder when I run a git status.

On branch master
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.

Changes to be committed:
  (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
    
    new file: app_public/views/pages/privacy.php
    new file: app_public/views/pages/terms.php
    new file: public_html/stats/ctry_usage_200908.png
    new file: public_html/stats/daily_usage_200908.png
    new file: public_html/stats/dns_cache.db
    new file: public_html/stats/hourly_usage_200908.png
    new file: public_html/stats/index.html
    new file: public_html/stats/usage.png
    new file: public_html/stats/usage_200908.html
    new file: public_html/stats/webalizer.current
    new file: public_html/stats/webalizer.hist

Changed but not updated:
    modified: .gitignore

I added in my .gitignore a few different lines but it still trying to add them:

public_html/stats
public_html/stats/**
public_html/stats/**/*
public_html/stats/*

Try /public_html/stats/* ?

But since the files in git status reported as to be commited that means you've already added them manually. In which case, of course, it's a bit too late to ignore. You can git rm --cache them (IIRC).

For this there are two cases

Case 1: File already added to git repo.

Case 2: File newly created and its status still showing as untracked file when using

git status

If you have case 1:

STEP 1: Then run

git rm --cached filename 

to remove it from git repo cache

if it is a directory then use

git rm -r --cached  directory_name

STEP 2: If Case 1 is over then create new file named .gitignore in your git repo

STEP 3: Use following to tell git to ignore / assume file is unchanged

git update-index --assume-unchanged path/to/file.txt

STEP 4: Now, check status using git status open .gitignore in your editor nano, vim, geany etc... any one, add the path of the file / folder to ignore. If it is a folder then user folder_name/* to ignore all file.

If you still do not understand read the article git ignore file link.

From "git help ignore" we learn:

> If the pattern ends with a slash, it > is removed for the purpose of the > following description, but it would > only find a match with a directory. In > other words, foo/ will match a > directory foo and paths underneath it, > but will not match a regular file or a > symbolic link foo (this is consistent > with > the way how pathspec works in general in git).

Therefore what you need is

> public_html/stats/

It's /public_html/stats/*.

$ ~/myrepo> ls public_html/stats/
bar baz foo
$ ~/myrepo> cat .gitignore 
public_html/stats/*
$ ~/myrepo> git status
# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#	.gitignore
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
$ ~/myrepo>

I'm incredibly lazy. I just did a search hoping to find a shortcut to this problem but didn't get an answer so I knocked this up.

~/bin/IGNORE_ALL

#!/bin/bash
# Usage: IGNORE_ALL <commit message>                                                                                                                             
git status --porcelain | grep '^??' | cut -f2 -d' ' >> .gitignore              
git commit -m "$*" .gitignore 

EG: IGNORE_ALL added stat ignores

This will just append all the ignore files to your .gitignore and commit. note you might want to add annotations to the file afterwards.