Setting Up Global Git Ignore Rules

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When developing code, it’s common to have files and directories that shouldn’t be committed to the Git repository. These might include build artifacts like object and compiled code, dependency caches, runtime files such as logs, temporary or lock files, IDE or editor-specific files, and hidden OS files like Thumbs.db or .DS_Store.

I often see entries like .DS_Store or .idea added directly to a project’s .gitignore, but this isn’t best practice. Not every developer uses the same tools or operating system, and maintaining a growing list of personal or environment-specific files in a shared repository can quickly become messy. The more appropriate approach — and one that should be considered a development standard — is to keep project-level .gitignore files focused solely on files relevant to the project. For everything else — your IDE, your OS, and your personal workflow — Git allows you to set up a global ignore file that applies across all your projects.

To setup a file with a list of items which should be ignored globally on your local system:

git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global

To view the currently set file:

git config --get core.excludesfile

Personal Tip

When working on a project, I will often need local documentation and planning notes, and have standardized on keeping these files in the root of the project and naming them _ToDo, _Old, _Open and _WIP. To support more complex documentation for projects which need it, I also ignore files in the root which match _*.md.

To support creating quick, temporary test scripts, I also ignore t, t.*, t-*, t[0-9] and t[0-9].* files.

This helps me avoid committing scratch work and personal files. If using my global file, tailor it to match your own tools and habits

My current file for use on macOS:

# General files
.DS_Store
.AppleDouble
.Apple Double
.LSOverride

# Thumbnail cache files
._*
Thumbs.db

# Custom icon file (which ends with \r), but not other icon* entries
Icon?
![iI]con[_a-zA-Z0-9]

# Files which can be in root of an external volume
.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
.DocumentRevisions-V100
.fseventsd
.Spotlight-V100
.TemporaryItems
.Trashes
.VolumeIcon.icns

# Possible directories on a remote AFP share
.apdisk
.AppleDB
.AppleDesktop
.Apple Desktop
Network Trash Folder
Temporary Items

# Application specific files/directories
.idea/
.vscode
*.code-workspace

# Local WIP and Notes
/_*.md
/_ToDo
/_Old
/_Open
/_WIP

# Temporary test files
/t
/t.*
/t-*
/t[0-9]
/t[0-9].*
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