Set up a global .gitignore file

A global gitignore file can be handy to automatically hide common files from projects that you work on. I typically use this for files that are specific to me and my local setup.

First create the file that you want to use for your global .gitignore file. I just use a file called .gitignore in my home directory.

touch ~/.gitignore

Then run this git command to make all git repos you work with use your global .gitignore as well as the project specific one.

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

Then add filepaths to your new global file as you would a project-local one.

My use case.

I use Neovim, BTW. As part of my setup I have some project-specific settings that can be set by adding a file name .exrc into the project root. Of course I don’t want this committed to the repo, and it doesnt make sense to include editor-specific ignored files to the project gitignore. So I add that file to my global .gitignore.