Git Ignoring Files and Folders Ignoring subsequent changes to a file (without removing it)
Example
Sometimes you want to have a file held in Git but ignore subsequent changes.
Tell Git to ignore changes to a file or directory using update-index:
git update-index --assume-unchanged my-file.txt
The above command instructs Git to assume my-file.txt hasn't been changed, and not to check or report changes. The file is still present in the repository.
This can be useful for providing defaults and allowing local environment overrides, e.g.:
# create a file with some values in cat <<EOF MYSQL_USER=app MYSQL_PASSWORD=FIXME_SECRET_PASSWORD EOF > .env # commit to Git git add .env git commit -m "Adding .env template" # ignore future changes to .env git update-index --assume-unchanged .env # update your password vi .env # no changes! git status
