.gitignore doesn't stop changes being tracked in files

Question

Changes I make to a file that's within my .gitignore are being tracked by git.

File structure:

.gitignore
wp-config.php

Contents of .gitignore:

wp-config.php

When I change wp-config.php, and then run git status I see that it has been modified:

alex$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   modified:   wp-config.php
#

How to I stop tracking this file? I thought putting it in .gitignore would be enough.

Answer 1

With .gitignore, only untracked files are ignored.

Once the file has been added, change to that file are not ignored.

In this case, you should use assume-unchanged or skip-worktree instead.

git update-index --assume-unchanged -- wp-config.php

or

git update-index --skip-worktree -- wp-config.php