How do I ignore files in Subversion?
Question
How do I ignore files in Subversion?
Also, how do I find files which are not under version control?
Solution
(This answer has been updated to match SVN 1.8 and 1.9's behaviour)
You have 2 questions:
Marking files as ignored:
By "ignored file" I mean the file won't appear in lists even as "unversioned": your SVN client will pretend the file doesn't exist at all in the filesystem.
Ignored files are specified by a "file pattern". The syntax and format of file patterns is explained in SVN's online documentation: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.advanced.props.special.ignore.html "File Patterns in Subversion".
Subversion, as of version 1.8 (June 2013) and later, supports 3 different ways of specifying file patterns. Here's a summary with examples:
1 - Runtime Configuration Area - global-ignores
option:
- This is a client-side only setting, so your
global-ignores
list won't be shared by other users, and it applies to all repos you checkout onto your computer. - This setting is defined in your Runtime Configuration Area file:
- Windows (file-based) -
C:\Users\{you}\AppData\Roaming\Subversion\config
- Windows (registry-based) -
Software\Tigris.org\Subversion\Config\Miscellany\global-ignores
in bothHKLM
andHKCU
. - Linux/Unix -
~/.subversion/config
- Windows (file-based) -
2 - The svn:ignore
property, which is set on directories (not files):
- This is stored within the repo, so other users will have the same ignore files. Similar to how
.gitignore
works. svn:ignore
is applied to directories and is non-recursive or inherited. Any file or immediate subdirectory of the parent directory that matches the File Pattern will be excluded.While SVN 1.8 adds the concept of "inherited properties", the
svn:ignore
property itself is ignored in non-immediate descendant directories:cd ~/myRepoRoot # Open an existing repo. echo "foo" > "ignoreThis.txt" # Create a file called "ignoreThis.txt". svn status # Check to see if the file is ignored or not. > ? ./ignoreThis.txt > 1 unversioned file # ...it is NOT currently ignored. svn propset svn:ignore "ignoreThis.txt" . # Apply the svn:ignore property to the "myRepoRoot" directory. svn status > 0 unversioned files # ...but now the file is ignored! cd subdirectory # now open a subdirectory. echo "foo" > "ignoreThis.txt" # create another file named "ignoreThis.txt". svn status > ? ./subdirectory/ignoreThis.txt # ...and is is NOT ignored! > 1 unversioned file
(So the file
./subdirectory/ignoreThis
is not ignored, even though "ignoreThis.txt
" is applied on the.
repo root).Therefore, to apply an ignore list recursively you must use
svn propset svn:ignore <filePattern> . --recursive
.- This will create a copy of the property on every subdirectory.
- If the
<filePattern>
value is different in a child directory then the child's value completely overrides the parents, so there is no "additive" effect. - So if you change the
<filePattern>
on the root.
, then you must change it with--recursive
to overwrite it on the child and descendant directories.
I note that the command-line syntax is counter-intuitive.
- I started-off assuming that you would ignore a file in SVN by typing something like
svn ignore pathToFileToIgnore.txt
however this is not how SVN's ignore feature works.
- I started-off assuming that you would ignore a file in SVN by typing something like
3- The svn:global-ignores
property. Requires SVN 1.8 (June 2013):
- This is similar to
svn:ignore
, except it makes use of SVN 1.8's "inherited properties" feature. - Compare to
svn:ignore
, the file pattern is automatically applied in every descendant directory (not just immediate children).- This means that is unnecessary to set
svn:global-ignores
with the--recursive
flag, as inherited ignore file patterns are automatically applied as they're inherited.
- This means that is unnecessary to set
Running the same set of commands as in the previous example, but using
svn:global-ignores
instead:cd ~/myRepoRoot # Open an existing repo echo "foo" > "ignoreThis.txt" # Create a file called "ignoreThis.txt" svn status # Check to see if the file is ignored or not > ? ./ignoreThis.txt > 1 unversioned file # ...it is NOT currently ignored svn propset svn:global-ignores "ignoreThis.txt" . svn status > 0 unversioned files # ...but now the file is ignored! cd subdirectory # now open a subdirectory echo "foo" > "ignoreThis.txt" # create another file named "ignoreThis.txt" svn status > 0 unversioned files # the file is ignored here too!
For TortoiseSVN users:
This whole arrangement was confusing for me, because TortoiseSVN's terminology (as used in their Windows Explorer menu system) was initially misleading to me - I was unsure what the significance of the Ignore menu's "Add recursively", "Add *" and "Add " options. I hope this post explains how the Ignore feature ties-in to the SVN Properties feature. That said, I suggest using the command-line to set ignored files so you get a feel for how it works instead of using the GUI, and only using the GUI to manipulate properties after you're comfortable with the command-line.
Listing files that are ignored:
The command svn status
will hide ignored files (that is, files that match an RGA global-ignores
pattern, or match an immediate parent directory's svn:ignore
pattern or match any ancesor directory's svn:global-ignores
pattern.
Use the --no-ignore
option to see those files listed. Ignored files have a status of I
, then pipe the output to grep
to only show lines starting with "I".
The command is:
svn status --no-ignore | grep "^I"
For example:
svn status
> ? foo # An unversioned file
> M modifiedFile.txt # A versioned file that has been modified
svn status --no-ignore
> ? foo # An unversioned file
> I ignoreThis.txt # A file matching an svn:ignore pattern
> M modifiedFile.txt # A versioned file that has been modified
svn status --no-ignore | grep "^I"
> I ignoreThis.txt # A file matching an svn:ignore pattern
ta-da!
OTHER TIPS
Use the following command to create a list not under version control files.
svn status | grep "^\?" | awk "{print \$2}" > ignoring.txt
Then edit the file to leave just the files you want actually to ignore. Then use this one to ignore the files listed in the file:
svn propset svn:ignore -F ignoring.txt .
Note the dot at the end of the line. It tells SVN that the property is being set on the current directory.
Delete the file:
rm ignoring.txt
Finally commit,
svn ci --message "ignoring some files"
You can then check which files are ignored via:
svn proplist -v
If you are using TortoiseSVN, right-click on a file and then select TortoiseSVN / Add to ignore list. This will add the file/wildcard to the svn:ignore
property.
svn:ignore
will be checked when you are checking in files, and matching files will be ignored. I have the following ignore list for a Visual Studio .NET project:
bin obj
*.exe
*.dll
_ReSharper
*.pdb
*.suo
You can find this list in the context menu at TortoiseSVN / Properties.
You can ignore a file or directory like .gitignore. Just create a text file of list of directories/files you want to ignore and run the code below:
svn propset svn:ignore -F ignorelist.txt .
OR if you don't want to use a text file, you can do it like this:
svn propset svn:ignore "first
second
third" .
Source: Karsten's Blog - Set svn:ignore for multiple files from command line
I found the article .svnignore Example for Java.
Example: .svnignore for Ruby on Rails,
/log
/public/*.JPEG
/public/*.jpeg
/public/*.png
/public/*.gif
*.*~
And after that:
svn propset svn:ignore -F .svnignore .
Examples for .gitignore. You can use for your .svnignore
As nobody seems to have mentioned it...
svn propedit svn:ignore .
Then edit the contents of the file to specify the patterns to ignore, exit the editor and you're all done.
When using propedit make sure not have any trailing spaces as that will cause the file to be excluded from the ignore list.
These are inserted automatically if you've use tab-autocomplete on linux to create the file to begin with:
svn propset svn:ignore 'file1
file2' .
Another solution is:
svn st | awk '/^?/{print $2}' > svnignore.txt && svn propget svn:ignore >> svnignore.txt && svn propset svn:ignore -F svnignore.txt . && rm svnignore.txt
or line by line
svn st | awk '/^?/{print $2}' > svnignore.txt
svn propget svn:ignore >> svnignore.txt
svn propset svn:ignore -F svnignore.txt .
rm svnignore.txt
What it does:
- Gets the status files from the svn
- Saves all files with ? to the file "svnignore.txt"
- Gets the already ignored files and appends them to the file "svnignore.txt"
- Tells the svn to ignore the files in "svnignore.txt"
- Removes the file
Also, if you use Tortoise SVN you can do this:
- In context menu select "TortoiseSVN", then "Properties"
- In appeared window click "New", then "Advanced"
- In appeared window opposite to "Property name" select or type "svn:ignore", opposite to "Property value" type desired file name or folder name or file mask (in my case it was "*/target"), click "Apply property recursively"
- Ok. Ok.
- Commit
A more readable version of bkbilly's answer:
svn st | awk '/^?/{print $2}' > svnignore.txt
svn propget svn:ignore >> svnignore.txt
svn propset svn:ignore -F svnignore.txt .
rm svnignore.txt
What it does:
- Gets the status files from the svn
- Saves all files with ? to the file "svnignore.txt"
- Gets the already ignored files and appends them to the file "svnignore.txt"
- Tells the svn to ignore the files in "svnignore.txt"
- Removes the file
- cd ~/.subversion
- open config
- find the line like 'global-ignores'
- set ignore file type like this: global-ignores = *.o *.lo *.la *.al .libs *.so .so.[0-9] *.pyc *.pyo 88 *.rej ~ ## .#* .*.swp .DS_Store node_modules output
You can also set a global ignore pattern in SVN's configuration file.
svn status
will tell you which files are not in SVN, as well as what's changed.
Look at the SVN properties for the ignore property.
For all things SVN, the Red Book is required reading.
Adding a directory to subversion, and ignoring the directory contents
svn propset svn:ignore '\*.*' .
or
svn propset svn:ignore '*' .
SVN ignore
is easy to manage in TortoiseSVN. Open TortoiseSVN and right-click on file menu then select Add to ignore list.
This will add the files in the svn:ignore
property.
When we checking in the files then those file which is matched with svn:ignore
that will be ignored and will not commit.
In Visual Studio project we have added following files to ignore:
bin obj
*.exe
*.dll
*.pdb
*.suo
We are managing source code on SVN of Comparetrap using this method successfully
Use the command svn status on your working copy to show the status of files, files that are not yet under version control (and not ignored) will have a question mark next to them.
As for ignoring files you need to edit the svn:ignore property, read the chapter Ignoring Unversioned Items in the svnbook at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.advanced.props.special.ignore.html. The book also describes more about using svn status.
- open you use JetBrains Product(i.e. Pycharm)
- then click the 'commit' button on the top toolbar or use shortcut 'ctrl + k' screenshot_toolbar
- on the commit interface, move your unwanted files to another change list as follows. screenshot_commit_change
- next time you can only commit default change list.