How can I ignore the .env file in git?

Question

I made changes in my.env file and wrote after that in terminal git status :

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
    modified:   .env

I would like that the changes in the.env file be igonored by git so I added this line in.gitignore:

/.env

Now when I write git status I get the result:

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
    modified:   .env
    modified:   .gitignore

What can I do now? Why is gitignore not ignored?

Answer 1

The problem with a git rm --cached.env (which would enable to.gitignore to operate) is that, once committed and pushed, everybody lose the file on their next git pull .

If you need to have local .env settings (that should not be part of your Git repository), you can either:

• check if your.env comes with some kind of #include directive, which would allow you to include a second file.env.local (that you can add safely to your .gitignore )
• or setup a merge content driver, and version only .env.tpl (a template file), while ignoring .env itself (so using the git rm --cached.env , but with a git add .env.tpl )

The idea behind a content filter driver is to generate automatically on git checkout / git switch the .env file, based on the .env.tpl template file and a local (and ignored) .env.values value file.
See " Github private repo - manage packages for different environment " as an example of such an approach.