Git: How to add files and subfolders in a gitignore'd folder

Question

Suppose I have a folder

application/uploads

EDIT

application/uploads/{a}/{b}/{c}/{d}/{e}/{f}/{g}/abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

{a},{b},{c},{d},{e},{f},{g} - are hash keys, any alpha-numeric characters are possible

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz - is a hashed filename

I don't want git to track it neither on development machines nor on production server, so it is added to a .gitignore file.

Suppose now I've created a branch "Backups" on the production server where I want to store the state of the project at different moments of time.

To do that I need to 'add' and 'commit' all files of a project including those which are under .gitignore

Note: Changing .gitignore is a bad idea in general because

It might cause problems when pulling changes from develment branches
In a heavily loaded and recently changing project it will be a problem to checkout other branch because of new untracked files that are added each second right after you finished adding and commiting the previous ones
etc...

So the question: How do I force git to 'add' files that are under .gitignore ad then 'commit' them without actually changing .gitignore?

C. K. Young · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-09 11:00:13Z

7

From the git-add manpage:

   -f, --force
       Allow adding otherwise ignored files.

answered Jun 9, 2011 at 11:00

C. K. Young

224k47 gold badges394 silver badges446 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

6 Comments

Lu4 Over a year ago

unfortunately it doesn't work I've used git add --force root/uploads and git add --force root/uploads/.

Lu4 Over a year ago

git status gives # On branch Backups nothing to commit (working directory clean)

C. K. Young Over a year ago

@Denis: You can't just specify the directories. You need to specify the files to force-add. e.g., git add -f root/uploads/*.

user229044 Over a year ago

@Denis Then add the files individually, or use find -type f -exec git add -f "{}" \;. You cannot add directories to Git, only files. If your root/uploads contains only empty folders, you will need to place a .keep or some kind of placeholder file in the deepest folder. You cannot add empty folders to git.

C. K. Young Over a year ago

@meagar: Instead of \;, use +. This runs git add far fewer times. (; => once per file; + => once per as-many-files-as-will-fit-in-the-command-line.)

|

hakre · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-09 14:47:48Z

1

.gitignore allows not only to ignore but also to re-add, it's the exclamation mark:

!add-this-dir/file/whatever

You will find this properly documented here, if you're in shell type git help gitignore.

answered Jun 9, 2011 at 14:47

hakre

200k55 gold badges454 silver badges866 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Git: How to add files and subfolders in a gitignore'd folder

2 Answers 2

6 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

6 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related