Creating a global .gitignore file

It's possible to create a global .gitignore file¹ that is automatically shared among all your repositories.

Why should I do this in the first place? Well, there are a couple of reasons.

One example is of course, I want the same rules to apply to all my repositories.

But, in my case, at work, we are actually using Subversion and not Git. But I do use Git.

And I do not want to pollute the entire Subversion repository with my .gitignore files.

So for me, this is a valid solution.

Let's check that I do not already have this configuration setting active:

git config --list
user.name=Mr. Bear
user.email=mrbear@bears.com
svn.rmdir=true
alias.co=checkout
core.excludesfile=/home/mrbear/.gitignore_global
core.autocrlf=input
core.ignorecase=false

You'll notice that among my properties, I already have a core.excludesfile=/home/mrbear/.gitignore_global.

I added it as follows:

$ git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global

Than just populate it like you do with any .gitignore file.

References

[1] Docs github.com - Configuring ignored files for all repositories on your computer

https://docs.github.com/en/github/using-git/ignoring-files#create-a-global-gitignore