How can I have git ignore the root level .vs directory?

Question

I know that git (as of 1.8.2) will ignore entire directories (eg "bin") at any level using a .gitignore file (in the root directory) that contains something like:

bin/

However, that doesn't seem to work for:

.vs/

Is there special syntax for directories that begin with "."?

Answer 1

Is there special syntax for directories that begin with " . "?

I confirm there is nothing special.

If git ls-files -- .vs/a_file_name returns anything (see " How to tell if a file is git tracked (by shell exit code)? "), then you need, as you have seen, to remove it first:

git rm --cached -r -- .vs/

Then a git status should not bring anything from .vs/