how to use .gitkeep
file to keep a folder but not other files/folders inside that folder, what should the .gitignore file look like
To keep an empty folder in a Git repository, you can use a .gitkeep
file. However, it's important to note that .gitkeep
is not a special Git feature but rather a convention used by developers to ensure empty directories are tracked by Git.
Here's how you can use a .gitkeep
file to keep a folder but not other files/folders inside that folder:
Create the folder structure:
Create the folder you want to keep. Let's say the folder is named example
.
mkdir example
Add a .gitkeep
file:
Inside the example
folder, create a .gitkeep
file.
touch example/.gitkeep
Modify the .gitignore
file:
To ignore all other files and subdirectories inside the example
folder, you need to create or modify the .gitignore
file in your repository.
Here is what the .gitignore
file should look like:
# Ignore everything in the example directory
example/*
# But do not ignore the .gitkeep file
!example/.gitkeep
This configuration tells Git to:
example
folder (example/*
)..gitkeep
file from being ignored (!example/.gitkeep
).Add and commit the changes:
Add the .gitkeep
file and the .gitignore
file to your Git repository and commit the changes.
git add example/.gitkeep .gitignore
git commit -m "Keep the example folder using .gitkeep"
By following these steps, you ensure that the example
folder is kept in the repository, but no other files or subdirectories inside that folder are tracked by Git.