How to make git ignore a sub directory group with gitignore pattern?

Question

I've a directory projects/ in root directory. the root directory is added to git. in projects I've several subdirectories. But I want to track only projects/admin not projects/x nor projects/y . What ignore rule I need to write in .gitignore ?

Answer 1

You can use a negative ignore clauses, eg:

project/*
!project/admin
!project/admin/*

Answer 2

projects/*
!projects/admin

The ! prefix before a line negates it; ie the directory or file given in that line will not be ignored.

Answer 3

You can put a .gitignore file directly in the projects directory and it will only affect that directory.

So, in projects/.gitignore , just put:

admin
x
etc

Answer 4

You can add a .gitignore to each folder you don't want to track by running touch project/x/.gitignore . Git will then ignore the contents of each of those folders.