José David Baena

GitIgnore personal configurations

Published on
Published on
/5 mins read

A global .gitignore file? Or just a .gitignore file on your project? Both! :)

Using both a global ~/.gitignore (home) and a project-level .gitignore keeps repositories clean and safe for different reasons. The global ignore filters out personal, machine-specific clutter you never want in any repo—OS cruft (e.g., .DS_Store, Thumbs.db), editor caches, and other local tooling artifacts—so you don’t repeat rules or accidentally commit noise across projects.

The project .gitignore documents and enforces what’s disposable for this codebase—build outputs, dependency folders, logs, temp files, and local config like .env*—which reduces repo size, speeds up diffs, prevents leaking secrets, and makes fresh clones reproducible for teammates and CI. Together they separate universal hygiene from stack-specific rules, improving security, performance, and onboarding.

My global ~/.gitignore:

.gitignore
# JetBrains (IntelliJ/GoLand/WebStorm/etc.)
.idea/*
!.idea/codeStyles
!.idea/runConfigurations
*.iml
out/
cmake-build-*/
.idea_modules/
 
# macOS
.DS_Store
._*
*.icloud
 
# Vim
*.swp
*.swo
*.swn
*~
Session.vim
Sessionx.vim
.netrwhist
tags
[._]*.un~
 

Project .gitignore, normally a subset of:

.gitignore
# Created by https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/java,go,ruby,python,react
# Edit at https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore?templates=java,go,ruby,python,react
 
### Go ###
# If you prefer the allow list template instead of the deny list, see community template:
# https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/main/community/Golang/Go.AllowList.gitignore
#
# Binaries for programs and plugins
*.exe
*.exe~
*.dll
*.so
*.dylib
 
# Test binary, built with `go test -c`
*.test
 
# Output of the go coverage tool, specifically when used with LiteIDE
*.out
 
# Dependency directories (remove the comment below to include it)
# vendor/
 
# Go workspace file
go.work
 
### Java ###
# Compiled class file
*.class
 
# Log file
*.log
 
# BlueJ files
*.ctxt
 
# Mobile Tools for Java (J2ME)
.mtj.tmp/
 
# Package Files #
*.jar
*.war
*.nar
*.ear
*.zip
*.tar.gz
*.rar
 
# virtual machine crash logs, see http://www.java.com/en/download/help/error_hotspot.xml
hs_err_pid*
replay_pid*
 
### Python ###
# Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*$py.class
 
# C extensions
 
# Distribution / packaging
.Python
build/
develop-eggs/
dist/
downloads/
eggs/
.eggs/
lib/
lib64/
parts/
sdist/
var/
wheels/
share/python-wheels/
*.egg-info/
.installed.cfg
*.egg
MANIFEST
 
# PyInstaller
#  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
#  before PyInstaller builds the exe, so as to inject date/other infos into it.
*.manifest
*.spec
 
# Installer logs
pip-log.txt
pip-delete-this-directory.txt
 
# Unit test / coverage reports
htmlcov/
.tox/
.nox/
.coverage
.coverage.*
.cache
nosetests.xml
coverage.xml
*.cover
*.py,cover
.hypothesis/
.pytest_cache/
cover/
 
# Translations
*.mo
*.pot
 
# Django stuff:
local_settings.py
db.sqlite3
db.sqlite3-journal
 
# Flask stuff:
instance/
.webassets-cache
 
# Scrapy stuff:
.scrapy
 
# Sphinx documentation
docs/_build/
 
# PyBuilder
.pybuilder/
target/
 
# Jupyter Notebook
.ipynb_checkpoints
 
# IPython
profile_default/
ipython_config.py
 
# pyenv
#   For a library or package, you might want to ignore these files since the code is
#   intended to run in multiple environments; otherwise, check them in:
# .python-version
 
# pipenv
#   According to pypa/pipenv#598, it is recommended to include Pipfile.lock in version control.
#   However, in case of collaboration, if having platform-specific dependencies or dependencies
#   having no cross-platform support, pipenv may install dependencies that don't work, or not
#   install all needed dependencies.
#Pipfile.lock
 
# poetry
#   Similar to Pipfile.lock, it is generally recommended to include poetry.lock in version control.
#   This is especially recommended for binary packages to ensure reproducibility, and is more
#   commonly ignored for libraries.
#   https://python-poetry.org/docs/basic-usage/#commit-your-poetrylock-file-to-version-control
#poetry.lock
 
# pdm
#   Similar to Pipfile.lock, it is generally recommended to include pdm.lock in version control.
#pdm.lock
#   pdm stores project-wide configurations in .pdm.toml, but it is recommended to not include it
#   in version control.
#   https://pdm.fming.dev/#use-with-ide
.pdm.toml
 
# PEP 582; used by e.g. github.com/David-OConnor/pyflow and github.com/pdm-project/pdm
__pypackages__/
 
# Celery stuff
celerybeat-schedule
celerybeat.pid
 
# SageMath parsed files
*.sage.py
 
# Environments
.env
.venv
env/
venv/
ENV/
env.bak/
venv.bak/
 
# Spyder project settings
.spyderproject
.spyproject
 
# Rope project settings
.ropeproject
 
# mkdocs documentation
/site
 
# mypy
.mypy_cache/
.dmypy.json
dmypy.json
 
# Pyre type checker
.pyre/
 
# pytype static type analyzer
.pytype/
 
# Cython debug symbols
cython_debug/
 
# PyCharm
#  JetBrains specific template is maintained in a separate JetBrains.gitignore that can
#  be found at https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/main/Global/JetBrains.gitignore
#  and can be added to the global gitignore or merged into this file.  For a more nuclear
#  option (not recommended) you can uncomment the following to ignore the entire idea folder.
#.idea/
 
### Python Patch ###
# Poetry local configuration file - https://python-poetry.org/docs/configuration/#local-configuration
poetry.toml
 
# ruff
.ruff_cache/
 
# LSP config files
pyrightconfig.json
 
### react ###
.DS_*
logs
**/*.backup.*
**/*.back.*
 
node_modules
bower_components
 
*.sublime*
 
psd
thumb
sketch
 
### Ruby ###
*.gem
*.rbc
/.config
/coverage/
/InstalledFiles
/pkg/
/spec/reports/
/spec/examples.txt
/test/tmp/
/test/version_tmp/
/tmp/
 
# Used by dotenv library to load environment variables.
# .env
 
# Ignore Byebug command history file.
.byebug_history
 
## Specific to RubyMotion:
.dat*
.repl_history
*.bridgesupport
build-iPhoneOS/
build-iPhoneSimulator/
 
## Specific to RubyMotion (use of CocoaPods):
# We recommend against adding the Pods directory to your .gitignore. However
# you should judge for yourself, the pros and cons are mentioned at:
# https://guides.cocoapods.org/using/using-cocoapods.html#should-i-check-the-pods-directory-into-source-control
# vendor/Pods/
 
## Documentation cache and generated files:
/.yardoc/
/_yardoc/
/doc/
/rdoc/
 
## Environment normalization:
/.bundle/
/vendor/bundle
/lib/bundler/man/
 
# for a library or gem, you might want to ignore these files since the code is
# intended to run in multiple environments; otherwise, check them in:
# Gemfile.lock
# .ruby-version
# .ruby-gemset
 
# unless supporting rvm < 1.11.0 or doing something fancy, ignore this:
.rvmrc
 
# Used by RuboCop. Remote config files pulled in from inherit_from directive.
# .rubocop-https?--*