How to make GIT ignore tracked file locally?

Question

I have repository my team works on in which there are some files that are tracked but may be changed locally like .exe file which is an effect of compilation but should be checked in only when release is done. Another is makefile.mk in which I set some local option and rarely make changes I need to commit. Usually this file is different from repository version ant this is OK. So these files are tracked, cannot be put into .gitignore but make git pull origin cry for overwriting changes to these files ( error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge ). I tried to put *.exe~ into .git/info/exclude (as well as the .mk) and run git update-index --no-assume-unchanged that.exe so git status no longer shows them but pulling still fails, even with -f . I read somewhere to use git update-index --skip-worktree an I tried. Now no one knows how to update my repo.

• How can I keep modified files which are tracked and make GIT ignore their changes locally?
• How could I repair my repository without cloning it (I'd miss some config files for example)?

Answer 1

How can I keep modified files which are tracked and make GIT ignore their changes locally?

Git cannot track and ignore a file on the same time; it doesn't make any sense.

Remove the files from Git ( git rm --cached that.exe makefile.mk ), add their names to .gitignore and commit.

Make a copy of makefile.mk (let's say makefile.mk.example ) provide sensible defaults for the values that change from one development environment to another and add it to the repository.

Document this change to let any developer know how to get their own makefile.mk when they clone the repo.

Answer 2

for your first question, you could use the command.

git rm --cached <filename>

rm is for removal.

and for second question you can find the answer here