This tries to commplete a missing command from git toolchain, ignoring files.

By the years I found that powerful of git ignore is hide by complexity of touch internals on .git directory. It is scary for some people, but the fact is all the git commands just touch .git directory internals, that's obvious but is good to be remember.

So at this point, should you edit by yourself .git/info/exclude or cat .gitignore to check actual ignored files? Knowing the existence of git config -e and git config -l there must be no doubt here.

This tool focus on mitigate fear about .git directory -hiding its complexitys- and allow easy configuration of ignored files from your projects, allowing a good distinction between what you want to exclude privately or what you want to ignore publicly.

./autogen.sh --prefix /usr
make
make check
sudo make install

sudo make uninstall

Take a look to the contents of command line:

Target file configuration:
   -x, --exclude    File target $GIT_DIR/info/exclude (default)
   -i, --ignore     File target $GIT_DIR/../$FILE_IGNORE
   -f, --file=FILE  Use custom target file FILE
   -r, --relative   File target .gitignore on current dir
   -g, --global     File target (~/.gitignore)

Commands:
   -l, --list       Shows de content of target file
   -e, --edit       Opens editor for target file
   -h, --help       Shows this help
   -v, --version    Shows git ignore version

Porcelain commands:
   -a, --add=REGEX  Add REGEX to target file (must take care of shell expansion)
                     though as a verbose command for scripting

Examples:

 $ git ignore target    #ignore maven compilation on exclude file (locally)
 $ git ignore -i .project .classpath .settings    #ignore IDE config files on .gitignore
 $ cd doc
 $ git ignore -r '*.pdf' #ignore pdf generated files
 $ git ignore -i .idea/ '*.ipr' '*.iws' -x target    #oneliner for the two commands above
 $ git ignore -x --add '*.bak'    #example for sane usage on scripts
 $ git ignore -x -e    #edit exclude file

Q: But ignoring files is a one-shot-action on projects, why should I care? A: I would agree, in theory, but in practice I found myself revamping and modifying ignored files all the time.

Q: Why must I use '' on glob files? A: Glob expansion is executed prior to command line arguments gets to git-ignore, you can only disable that way.

Q: git-ignore do not detect I have added that ignore already, I have duplicates? A: Yes, it is not supposed that git-ignore parses and checks input, for reorder and strike out use -e option