GIT: ignoring changes in tracked files

29/01/2009

There may be times when you want to edit some variables in for example a database connection file, to run an application right from within your GIT repo. Of course you don’t wont those changes to be commited, so you add the file the .gitignore.
However adding tracked files to .gitignore won’t work because GIT will still track the changes and commit the file if you use the -a parameter.

Fortunately GIT has a very easy solution for this, just run the following command on the file or path you want to ignore the changes of:

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>

If you wanna start tracking changes again run the following command:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged <file>

You can find more info about this in the git manual.

Happy GITting ;)

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Filed under: Webdevelopment
  • http://paydro.net Arjen

    Thanks. Last time I just deleted the file, but this is way better.

  • http://www.snappinnovations.com Sean

    Where were you just two days ago. I was banging my head on the walls to try to find an easy solution like this. Thanks for the trip, definitely use it!

  • http://www.pagebakers.nl Eelco Wiersma

    Glad I could help :)

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  • http://todosv.com Vlad88SV

    And how you can propagate that change to the remote repository?, so I can share this “ignore” with everybody? :)

  • http://www.pagebakers.nl Eelco Wiersma

    @Vlad88SV

    Well.. if you want to accomplish that, you need to add files / directories to .gitignore before they get tracked by git..

    let’s say you have a tmp directory in your application and you don’t want to track the files in there, create a .empty (else the tmp dir will not be commited in the repo) file in there, commit it.. then add ‘tmp/*’ in your .gitignore file and commit again. Then it will be shared with other people :)

    good luck :)

  • http://andr.esmejia.com Andrés Mejía

    Great solution! Thanks. Now I need to bookmark this page.

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    thanks a lot really helped me, fast and easy…

  • http://www.sanguisdevelopment.com JOsh Beauregard

    thanx for the quick tip I learn something new every day.

  • Brett Ryan

    If you want to find all files that have been added to this list, use the following:

    git ls-files -v|grep ‘^h’

  • Prasad

    Thanks a lot, it was very useful

  • Leong Hean Hong

    Good! This what I am looking for. Thank you.

  • Gray

    Thanks! I was trying to remember how to do this.

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    Thank you very much!

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  • Jim

    Awesome – thanks for writing this up. Just tried it out and works perfectly.

  • hyunjungsoh

    :D Thanks so much! Please don’t delete this site! It has tons of great info! :D

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  • despairblue

    The definite end of the “You shouldn’t have added that file! It’s generated!”-Discussion

    Thanks so much.

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  • basicsensei

    this is epic myfriend! thanks a bunch;)
    is there a way to save the setting in the repo somehow ?
    so that if I assume unchanged like 10 files
    and someone clones the repo, it would already have those 10 files as assumed unchanged

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  • kk

    WHen I try this, I get this error:
    $ git update-index –assume-unchanged web.config
    fatal: Unable to mark file web.config

    this file is being tracked, I have to make sure I don’t accidentally commit it each time.

    • sawe

      did you manage to fix this, i get the same error

      • sawe

        apparently this is because of the casing, the command is case sensitive and gitbash’s autocomplete (pressing tab) shows web.config in lower caps, whilst the name starts with a capital letter, so change it to Web.config, and it should work

      • pagebakers

        Your should double check you’re using the correct filename, the command is case sensitive

  • Ubaid

    @— kk —

    Try running this instead (See W is capital letter):

    git update-index –assume-unchanged Web.config

    Git/Linux bash or at least this command seems case sensitive!

  • http://www.riesentasten.de Georg

    Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

  • Denis Kniazhev

    You saved my day. Thanks!

  • http://www.facebook.com/yashdhananjay Dhananjay Kumar Sharma

    its good!!

  • Philippe

    Thank you! Very helpful!

  • petethechop

    Thanks a million.