Git command to show which specific files are ignored by gitignore

Question

I am getting my feet wet with Git and have the following issue   My project source tree        --src   ----refs   ----       --vendor   ----      I have code  currently MEF  in my vendor branch that I will compile there and then move the references into  src refs which is where the project picks them up from   My issue is that I have my  gitignore set to ignore   dll and   pdb   I can do a git add -f bar dll to force the addition of the ignored file which is ok  the problem is I can not figure out to list what files exist that are ignored   I want to list the ignored files to make sure that I don t forget to add them   I have read the man page on git ls-files and can not make it work  It seems to me that git ls-files --exclude-standard -i should do what I want   What am I missing

User · Answer

Assuming there are a few ignore directories, why not use "git status node/logs/" which will tell you what files are to be added? In the directory I have a text file that is not part of status output, e.g.:

On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
Untracked files:
(use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed)

    node/logs/.gitignore

.gitignore is:

*

!.gitignore

User · Answer

Here s how to print the complete list of files in the working tree which match patterns located anywhere in Git s multiple gitignore sources  if you re using GNU find      cd  your project directory    find   -path    git -prune -o -print     git check-ignore --no-index --stdin --verbose   It will check all the files in the current branch of the repository  unless you ve deleted them locally    And it identifies the particular gitignore source lines  as well   Git continues to track changes in some files which match gitignore patterns  simply because those files were added already  Usefully  the above command displays those files  too   Negative gitignore patterns are also matched  However  these are easily distinguishable in the listing  because they begin with     If you re using Windows  Git Bash includes GNU find  as revealed by find --version    If the list is long  and you have rev   you can display them by extension  somewhat   too     cd  your project directory    find   -path    git -prune -o -print     git check-ignore --no-index --stdin --verbose     rev   sort   rev   For more details  see man find  man git-check-ignore  man rev  and man sort   The point of this whole approach is that Git  the software  is changing rapidly and is highly complex  By contrast  GNU s find is extremely stable  at least  in its features used here   So  anyone who desires to be competitive by displaying their in-depth knowledge of Git will answer the question in a different way   What s the best answer  This answer deliberately minimizes its reliance on Git knowledge  toward achieving the goal of stability and simplicity through modularity  information isolation   and is designed to last a long time

User · Answer

It should be sufficient to use   git ls-files --others -i --exclude-standard   as that covers everything covered by  git ls-files --others -i --exclude-from  git info exclude   therefore the latter is redundant    You can make this easier by adding an alias to your    gitconfig file   git config --global alias ignored  ls-files --others -i --exclude-standard    Now you can just type git ignored to see the list   Much easier to remember  and faster to type   If you prefer the more succinct display of Jason Geng s solution  you can add an alias for that like this   git config --global alias ignored  status --ignored -s    However the more verbose output is more useful for troubleshooting problems with your  gitignore files  as it lists every single cotton-pickin  file that is ignored   You would normally pipe the results through grep to see if a file you expect to be ignored is in there  or if a file you don t want to be ignore is in there   git ignored   grep some-file-that-isnt-being-ignored-properly   Then  when you just want to see a short display  it s easy enough to remember and type  git status --ignored    The -s can normally be left off

User · Answer

Notes   xiaobai s answer is simpler  git1 7 6    git status --ignored  as detailed in  quot Is there a way to tell git-status to ignore the effects of  gitignore files  quot   MattDiPasquale s answer  to be upvoted  git clean -ndX works on older gits  displaying a preview of what ignored files could be removed  without removing anything    Also interesting  mentioned in qwertymk s answer   you can also use the git check-ignore -v command  at least on Unix  doesn t work in a CMD Windows session  git check-ignore   git check-ignore -v    The second one displays the actual rule of the  gitignore which makes a file to be ignored in your git repo  On Unix  using  quot What expands to all files in current directory recursively  quot  and a bash4   git check-ignore        or a find -exec command  Note  https   stackoverflow com users 351947 Rafi B  suggests in the comments to avoid the  risky  globstar  git check-ignore -v   find   -type f -print   Make sure to exclude the files from the  git  subfolder though   Original answer 42009  git ls-files -i  should work  except its source code indicates  if  show ignored  amp  amp   exc given                    fprintf stderr   quot  s  --ignored needs some exclude pattern n quot                           argv 0     exc given   It turns out it need one more parameter after the -i to actually list anything  Try  git ls-files -i --exclude-from  Path To Your Global  gitignore   but that would only list your cached  non-ignored  object  with a filter  so that is not quite what you want   Example    cat  git ignore   ignore objects and archives  anywhere in the tree     oa    cat Documentation  gitignore   ignore generated html files    html   except foo html which is maintained by hand  foo html   git ls-files --ignored       --exclude  Documentation    0-9         --exclude-from  git ignore       --exclude-per-directory  gitignore   Actually  in my  gitignore  file  called  exclude    I find a command line that could help you  F  prog git test  git info gt type exclude   git ls-files --others --exclude-from  git info exclude   Lines that start with     are comments    For a project mostly in C  the following would be a good set of   exclude patterns  uncomment them if you want to use them        oa        So     git ls-files --ignored --exclude-from  git info exclude git ls-files -i --exclude-from  git info exclude  git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard git ls-files -o -i --exclude-standard  should do the trick   Thanks to honzajde pointing out in the comments that git ls-files -o -i --exclude-from    does not include cached files  only git ls-files -i --exclude-from     without -o  does   As mentioned in the ls-files man page  --others is the important part  in order to show you non-cached  non-committed  normally-ignored files  --exclude standard is not just a shortcut  but a way to include all standard  quot ignored  patterns quot  settings   exclude-standard Add the standard git exclusions   git info exclude   gitignore in each directory  and the user s global exclusion file

User · Answer

While generally correct your solution does not work in all circumstances  Assume a repo dir like this     ls                                                                                                             doc index html  README txt  tmp dir0 file0  tmp file1  tmp file2  doc  index html  tmp  dir0  file1  file2  tmp dir0  file0   and a  gitignore like this     cat  gitignore doc tmp     This ignores the doc directory and all files below tmp  Git works as expected  but the given command for listing the ignored files does not  Lets have a look at what git has to say     git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard                                                             tmp file1 tmp file2   Notice that doc is missing from the listing  You can get it with     git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard --directory                                                 doc    Notice the additional --directory option   From my knowledge there is no one command to list all ignored files at once  But I don t know why tmp dir0 does not show up at all

User · Answer

Notes   xiaobai s answer is simpler  git1 7 6    git status --ignored  as detailed in  quot Is there a way to tell git-status to ignore the effects of  gitignore files  quot   MattDiPasquale s answer  to be upvoted  git clean -ndX works on older gits  displaying a preview of what ignored files could be removed  without removing anything    Also interesting  mentioned in qwertymk s answer   you can also use the git check-ignore -v command  at least on Unix  doesn t work in a CMD Windows session  git check-ignore   git check-ignore -v    The second one displays the actual rule of the  gitignore which makes a file to be ignored in your git repo  On Unix  using  quot What expands to all files in current directory recursively  quot  and a bash4   git check-ignore        or a find -exec command  Note  https   stackoverflow com users 351947 Rafi B  suggests in the comments to avoid the  risky  globstar  git check-ignore -v   find   -type f -print   Make sure to exclude the files from the  git  subfolder though   Original answer 42009  git ls-files -i  should work  except its source code indicates  if  show ignored  amp  amp   exc given                    fprintf stderr   quot  s  --ignored needs some exclude pattern n quot                           argv 0     exc given   It turns out it need one more parameter after the -i to actually list anything  Try  git ls-files -i --exclude-from  Path To Your Global  gitignore   but that would only list your cached  non-ignored  object  with a filter  so that is not quite what you want   Example    cat  git ignore   ignore objects and archives  anywhere in the tree     oa    cat Documentation  gitignore   ignore generated html files    html   except foo html which is maintained by hand  foo html   git ls-files --ignored       --exclude  Documentation    0-9         --exclude-from  git ignore       --exclude-per-directory  gitignore   Actually  in my  gitignore  file  called  exclude    I find a command line that could help you  F  prog git test  git info gt type exclude   git ls-files --others --exclude-from  git info exclude   Lines that start with     are comments    For a project mostly in C  the following would be a good set of   exclude patterns  uncomment them if you want to use them        oa        So     git ls-files --ignored --exclude-from  git info exclude git ls-files -i --exclude-from  git info exclude  git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard git ls-files -o -i --exclude-standard  should do the trick   Thanks to honzajde pointing out in the comments that git ls-files -o -i --exclude-from    does not include cached files  only git ls-files -i --exclude-from     without -o  does   As mentioned in the ls-files man page  --others is the important part  in order to show you non-cached  non-committed  normally-ignored files  --exclude standard is not just a shortcut  but a way to include all standard  quot ignored  patterns quot  settings   exclude-standard Add the standard git exclusions   git info exclude   gitignore in each directory  and the user s global exclusion file

User · Answer

Here s how to print the complete list of files in the working tree which match patterns located anywhere in Git s multiple gitignore sources  if you re using GNU find      cd  your project directory    find   -path    git -prune -o -print     git check-ignore --no-index --stdin --verbose   It will check all the files in the current branch of the repository  unless you ve deleted them locally    And it identifies the particular gitignore source lines  as well   Git continues to track changes in some files which match gitignore patterns  simply because those files were added already  Usefully  the above command displays those files  too   Negative gitignore patterns are also matched  However  these are easily distinguishable in the listing  because they begin with     If you re using Windows  Git Bash includes GNU find  as revealed by find --version    If the list is long  and you have rev   you can display them by extension  somewhat   too     cd  your project directory    find   -path    git -prune -o -print     git check-ignore --no-index --stdin --verbose     rev   sort   rev   For more details  see man find  man git-check-ignore  man rev  and man sort   The point of this whole approach is that Git  the software  is changing rapidly and is highly complex  By contrast  GNU s find is extremely stable  at least  in its features used here   So  anyone who desires to be competitive by displaying their in-depth knowledge of Git will answer the question in a different way   What s the best answer  This answer deliberately minimizes its reliance on Git knowledge  toward achieving the goal of stability and simplicity through modularity  information isolation   and is designed to last a long time

User · Answer

There is a much simpler way to do it  git 1 7 6     git status --ignored   See Is there a way to tell git-status to ignore the effects of  gitignore files

User · Answer

Another option that s pretty clean  No pun intended     git clean -ndX   Explanation     git help clean  git-clean - Remove untracked files from the working tree -n  --dry-run - Don t actually remove anything  just show what would be done  -d - Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files  -X - Remove only files ignored by Git    Note  This solution will not show ignored files that have already been removed

User · Answer

Notes   xiaobai s answer is simpler  git1 7 6    git status --ignored  as detailed in  quot Is there a way to tell git-status to ignore the effects of  gitignore files  quot   MattDiPasquale s answer  to be upvoted  git clean -ndX works on older gits  displaying a preview of what ignored files could be removed  without removing anything    Also interesting  mentioned in qwertymk s answer   you can also use the git check-ignore -v command  at least on Unix  doesn t work in a CMD Windows session  git check-ignore   git check-ignore -v    The second one displays the actual rule of the  gitignore which makes a file to be ignored in your git repo  On Unix  using  quot What expands to all files in current directory recursively  quot  and a bash4   git check-ignore        or a find -exec command  Note  https   stackoverflow com users 351947 Rafi B  suggests in the comments to avoid the  risky  globstar  git check-ignore -v   find   -type f -print   Make sure to exclude the files from the  git  subfolder though   Original answer 42009  git ls-files -i  should work  except its source code indicates  if  show ignored  amp  amp   exc given                    fprintf stderr   quot  s  --ignored needs some exclude pattern n quot                           argv 0     exc given   It turns out it need one more parameter after the -i to actually list anything  Try  git ls-files -i --exclude-from  Path To Your Global  gitignore   but that would only list your cached  non-ignored  object  with a filter  so that is not quite what you want   Example    cat  git ignore   ignore objects and archives  anywhere in the tree     oa    cat Documentation  gitignore   ignore generated html files    html   except foo html which is maintained by hand  foo html   git ls-files --ignored       --exclude  Documentation    0-9         --exclude-from  git ignore       --exclude-per-directory  gitignore   Actually  in my  gitignore  file  called  exclude    I find a command line that could help you  F  prog git test  git info gt type exclude   git ls-files --others --exclude-from  git info exclude   Lines that start with     are comments    For a project mostly in C  the following would be a good set of   exclude patterns  uncomment them if you want to use them        oa        So     git ls-files --ignored --exclude-from  git info exclude git ls-files -i --exclude-from  git info exclude  git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard git ls-files -o -i --exclude-standard  should do the trick   Thanks to honzajde pointing out in the comments that git ls-files -o -i --exclude-from    does not include cached files  only git ls-files -i --exclude-from     without -o  does   As mentioned in the ls-files man page  --others is the important part  in order to show you non-cached  non-committed  normally-ignored files  --exclude standard is not just a shortcut  but a way to include all standard  quot ignored  patterns quot  settings   exclude-standard Add the standard git exclusions   git info exclude   gitignore in each directory  and the user s global exclusion file

User · Answer

extending the other answers   Note  git check-ignore uses the committed  gitignore and not the one in your working tree  To play with it without polluting your git history  you might freely try to edit it  and then commit with a git commit --amend   This problem happens mainly if you need a workaround of the problem  that git doesn t follow directories  Enter in the  gitignore   dirtokeep     dirtokeep  keep    keep should be a zero-length file in dirtokeep   The result will be that everything in dirtokeep will be ignored  except dirtokeep  keep  which will result that also the dirtokeep directory will be constructed on clone checkout

User · Answer

Git now has this functionality built in  git check-ignore     Of course you can change the glob to something like      dll in your case  Git Reference

User · Answer

While generally correct your solution does not work in all circumstances  Assume a repo dir like this     ls                                                                                                             doc index html  README txt  tmp dir0 file0  tmp file1  tmp file2  doc  index html  tmp  dir0  file1  file2  tmp dir0  file0   and a  gitignore like this     cat  gitignore doc tmp     This ignores the doc directory and all files below tmp  Git works as expected  but the given command for listing the ignored files does not  Lets have a look at what git has to say     git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard                                                             tmp file1 tmp file2   Notice that doc is missing from the listing  You can get it with     git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard --directory                                                 doc    Notice the additional --directory option   From my knowledge there is no one command to list all ignored files at once  But I don t know why tmp dir0 does not show up at all

User · Answer

Notes   xiaobai s answer is simpler  git1 7 6    git status --ignored  as detailed in  quot Is there a way to tell git-status to ignore the effects of  gitignore files  quot   MattDiPasquale s answer  to be upvoted  git clean -ndX works on older gits  displaying a preview of what ignored files could be removed  without removing anything    Also interesting  mentioned in qwertymk s answer   you can also use the git check-ignore -v command  at least on Unix  doesn t work in a CMD Windows session  git check-ignore   git check-ignore -v    The second one displays the actual rule of the  gitignore which makes a file to be ignored in your git repo  On Unix  using  quot What expands to all files in current directory recursively  quot  and a bash4   git check-ignore        or a find -exec command  Note  https   stackoverflow com users 351947 Rafi B  suggests in the comments to avoid the  risky  globstar  git check-ignore -v   find   -type f -print   Make sure to exclude the files from the  git  subfolder though   Original answer 42009  git ls-files -i  should work  except its source code indicates  if  show ignored  amp  amp   exc given                    fprintf stderr   quot  s  --ignored needs some exclude pattern n quot                           argv 0     exc given   It turns out it need one more parameter after the -i to actually list anything  Try  git ls-files -i --exclude-from  Path To Your Global  gitignore   but that would only list your cached  non-ignored  object  with a filter  so that is not quite what you want   Example    cat  git ignore   ignore objects and archives  anywhere in the tree     oa    cat Documentation  gitignore   ignore generated html files    html   except foo html which is maintained by hand  foo html   git ls-files --ignored       --exclude  Documentation    0-9         --exclude-from  git ignore       --exclude-per-directory  gitignore   Actually  in my  gitignore  file  called  exclude    I find a command line that could help you  F  prog git test  git info gt type exclude   git ls-files --others --exclude-from  git info exclude   Lines that start with     are comments    For a project mostly in C  the following would be a good set of   exclude patterns  uncomment them if you want to use them        oa        So     git ls-files --ignored --exclude-from  git info exclude git ls-files -i --exclude-from  git info exclude  git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard git ls-files -o -i --exclude-standard  should do the trick   Thanks to honzajde pointing out in the comments that git ls-files -o -i --exclude-from    does not include cached files  only git ls-files -i --exclude-from     without -o  does   As mentioned in the ls-files man page  --others is the important part  in order to show you non-cached  non-committed  normally-ignored files  --exclude standard is not just a shortcut  but a way to include all standard  quot ignored  patterns quot  settings   exclude-standard Add the standard git exclusions   git info exclude   gitignore in each directory  and the user s global exclusion file

User · Answer

Assuming there are a few ignore directories, why not use "git status node/logs/" which will tell you what files are to be added? In the directory I have a text file that is not part of status output, e.g.:

On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
Untracked files:
(use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed)

    node/logs/.gitignore

.gitignore is:

*

!.gitignore

User · Answer

extending the other answers   Note  git check-ignore uses the committed  gitignore and not the one in your working tree  To play with it without polluting your git history  you might freely try to edit it  and then commit with a git commit --amend   This problem happens mainly if you need a workaround of the problem  that git doesn t follow directories  Enter in the  gitignore   dirtokeep     dirtokeep  keep    keep should be a zero-length file in dirtokeep   The result will be that everything in dirtokeep will be ignored  except dirtokeep  keep  which will result that also the dirtokeep directory will be constructed on clone checkout

User · Answer

It should be sufficient to use   git ls-files --others -i --exclude-standard   as that covers everything covered by  git ls-files --others -i --exclude-from  git info exclude   therefore the latter is redundant    You can make this easier by adding an alias to your    gitconfig file   git config --global alias ignored  ls-files --others -i --exclude-standard    Now you can just type git ignored to see the list   Much easier to remember  and faster to type   If you prefer the more succinct display of Jason Geng s solution  you can add an alias for that like this   git config --global alias ignored  status --ignored -s    However the more verbose output is more useful for troubleshooting problems with your  gitignore files  as it lists every single cotton-pickin  file that is ignored   You would normally pipe the results through grep to see if a file you expect to be ignored is in there  or if a file you don t want to be ignore is in there   git ignored   grep some-file-that-isnt-being-ignored-properly   Then  when you just want to see a short display  it s easy enough to remember and type  git status --ignored    The -s can normally be left off

User · Answer

Another option that s pretty clean  No pun intended     git clean -ndX   Explanation     git help clean  git-clean - Remove untracked files from the working tree -n  --dry-run - Don t actually remove anything  just show what would be done  -d - Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files  -X - Remove only files ignored by Git    Note  This solution will not show ignored files that have already been removed

User · Answer

Git now has this functionality built in  git check-ignore     Of course you can change the glob to something like      dll in your case  Git Reference

User · Answer

There is a much simpler way to do it  git 1 7 6     git status --ignored   See Is there a way to tell git-status to ignore the effects of  gitignore files

[git] Git command to show which specific files are ignored by .gitignore

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