[git] 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/*

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.

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/

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.

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>