How do I ignore a directory with SVN?

I just started using SVN, and I have a cache directory that I don't need under source control. How can I ignore the whole directory/folder with SVN?

I am using Versions and TextMate on OS X and commandline.

Set the svn:ignore property of the parent directory:

svn propset svn:ignore dirname .

If you have multiple things to ignore, separate by newlines in the property value. In that case it's easier to edit the property value using an external editor:

svn propedit svn:ignore .

Here's an example directory structure:

\project
    \source
    \cache
    \other

When in project you see that your cache directory is not added and shows up as such.

> svn st
M  source
?  cache

To set the ignore property, do

> svn propset svn:ignore cache .

where svn:ignore is the name of the property you're setting, cache is the value of the property, and . is the directory you're setting this property on. It should be the parent directory of the cache directory that needs the property.

To check what properties are set:

> svn proplist
Properties on '.':
  svn:ignore

To see the value of svn:ignore:

> svn propget svn:ignore
cache

To delete properties previously set:

svn propdel svn:ignore

Important to mention:

On the commandline you can't use

svn add *

This will also add the ignored files, because the command line expands * and therefore svn add believes that you want all files to be added. Therefore use this instead:

svn add --force .

Since I spent a while trying to get this to work, it should be noted that if the files already exist in SVN, you need to svn delete them, and then edit the svn:ignore property.

I know that seems obvious, but they kept showing up as ? in my svn status list, when I thought it would just ignore them locally.

To expand slightly, if you're doing this with the svn command-line tool, you want to type:

svn propedit svn:ignore path/to/dir

which will open your text-editor of choice, then type '*' to ignore everything inside it, and save+quit - this will include the directory itself in svn, but ignore all the files inside it, to ignore the directory, use the path of the parent, and then type the name of the directory in the file. After saving, run an update ('svn up'), and then check in the appropriate path.

Set the svn:ignore property on the parent directory:

$ cd parentdir
$ svn ps svn:ignore . 'cachedir'

This will overwrite any current value of svn:ignore. You an edit the value with:

$ svn pe svn:ignore .

Which will open your editor. You can add multiple patterns, one per line.

You can view the current value with:

$ svn pg svn:ignore .

If you are using a GUI there should be a menu option to do this.

Thanks for all the contributions above. I would just like to share some additional information from my experiences while ignoring files.

---

When the folders are already under revision control

After svn import and svn co the files, what we usually do for the first time.

All runtime cache, attachments folders will be under version control. so, before svn ps svn:ignore, we need to delete it from the repository.

With SVN version 1.5 above we can use svn del --keep-local your_folder, but for an earlier version, my solution is:

1. svn export a clean copy of your folders (without .svn hidden folder)
2. svn del the local and repository,
3. svn ci
4. Copy back the folders
5. Do svn st and confirm the folders are flagged as '?'
6. Now we can do svn ps according to the solutions

---

When we need more than one folder to be ignored

• In one directory I have two folders that need to be set as svn:ignore
• If we set one, the other will be removed.
• Then we wonder we need svn pe

svn pe will need to edit the text file, and you can use this command if required to set your text editor using vi:

export SVN_EDITOR=vi

1. With "o" you can open a new line
2. Type in all the folder names you want to ignore
3. Hit 'esc' key to escape from edit mode
4. Type ":wq" then hit Enter to save and quit

The file looks something simply like this:

runtime
cache
attachments
assets

Remove it first...

If your directory foo is already under version control, remove it first with:

svn rm --keep-local foo

...then ignore:

svn propset svn:ignore foo .

If you are using the particular SVN client TortoiseSVN, then on commit, you have the option of right clicking items and selecting "Add to ignore list".

...and if you want to ignore more than one directory (say build/ temp/ and *.tmp files), you could either do it in two steps (ignoring the first and edit ignore properties (see other answers here) or one could write something like

svn propset svn:ignore "build
temp
*.tmp" .

on the command line.

The command to ignore multiple entries is a little tricky and requires backslashes.

svn propset svn:ignore "cache\
tmp\
null\
and_so_on" .

This command will ignore anything named cache, tmp, null, and and_so_on in the current directory.

Bash oneliner for multiple ignores:

svn propset svn:ignore ".project"$'\n'".settings"$'\n'".buildpath" "yourpath"

I had problems getting nested directories to be ignored; the top directory I wanted to ignore wouldn't show with 'svn status' but all the subdirs did. This is probably self-evident to everyone else, but I thought I'd share it:

EXAMPLE: >/trunk > >/trunk/cache > >/trunk/cache/subdir1 > >/trunk/cache/subdir2

cd /trunk
svn ps svn:ignore . /cache
cd /trunk/cache
svn ps svn:ignore . *
svn ci

If your project directory is named /Project, and your cache directory is named /Project/Cache, then you need to set a subversion property on /Project. The property name should be "svn:ignore" and the property value should be "Cache".

Refer to this page in the Subversion manual for more on properties.

Jason's answer will do the trick. However, instead of setting svn:ignore to "." on the cache directory, you may want to include "cache" in the parent directory's svn:ignore property, in case the cache directory is not always present. I do this on a number of "throwaway" folders.

"Thank-you" svn for such a hideous, bogus and difficult way to ignore files.

So I wrote a script svn-ignore-all:

#!/bin/sh

# svn-ignore-all

# usage: 
#   1. run svn status to see what is going on at each step 
#   2. add or commit all files that you DO want to have in svn
#   3. remove any random files that you don't want to svn:ignore
#   4. run this script to svn:ignore everything marked '?' in output of `svn status`

svn status |
grep '^?' |
sed 's/^? *//' |
while read f; do
    d=`dirname "$f"`
    b=`basename "$f"`
    ignore=`svn propget svn:ignore "$d"`
    if [ -n "$ignore" ]; then
        ignore="$ignore
"
    fi
    ignore="$ignore$b"
    svn propset svn:ignore "$ignore" "$d"
done

Also, to ignore specific list of files / pathnames, we can use this variant svn-ignore. I guess svn-ignore-all should really be like xargs svn-ignore.

#!/bin/sh

# svn-ignore

# usage:
#   svn-ignore file/to/ignore ...

for f; do
    d=`dirname "$f"`
    b=`basename "$f"`
    ignore=`svn propget svn:ignore "$d"`
    if [ -n "$ignore" ]; then
        ignore="$ignore
"
    fi
    ignore="$ignore$b"
    svn propset svn:ignore "$ignore" "$d"
done

One more thing: I tend to pollute my svn checkouts with many random files. When it's time to commit, I move those files into an 'old' subdirectory, and tell svn to ignore 'old'.

If you are using a frontend for SVN like TortoiseSVN, or some sort of IDE integration, there should also be an ignore option in the same menu are as the commit/add operation.

TO KEEP DIRECTORIES THAT SVN WILL IGNORE:

1. this will delete the files from the repository, but keep the directory under SVN control:

>svn delete --keep-local path/directory_to_keep/*

2. then set to ignore the directory (and all content):

>svn propset svn:ignore "*" path/directory_to_keep

Set the svn:ignore property. Most UI svn tools have a way to do this as well as the command line discussion in the link.

Since you're using Versions it's actually really easy:

• Browse your checked-out copy
• Click the directory to ignore
• In the "Ignore box on the right click Edit
• Type *.* to ignore all files (or *.jpg for just jpg files, etc.)

Watch your trailing slashes too. I found that including images/* in my ignore setting file did not ignore ./images/. When I ran svn status -u it still showed ? images. So, I just changed the ignore setting to just images, no slashes. Ran a status check and that cleared it out.

After losing a lot of time looking for how to do this simple activity, I decided to post it was not hard to find a decent explanation.

First let the sample structure

$ svn st ? project/trunk/target ? project/trunk/myfile.x

1 – first configure the editor,in mycase vim export SVN_EDITOR=vim

2 – “svn propedit svn:ignore project/trunk/” will open a new file and you can add your files and subdirectory in us case type “target” save and close file and works

$ svn st ? project/trunk/myfile.x

thanks.