.gitattributes export-ignore if in current directory but include if in subdirectory

Question

How can I use .gitattributes to ignore a directory in the parent but include the directory in the child?

For example, consider a /config directory. The root has a /config directory and there is also one located in /app/config

Adding

config export-ignore

would solve things for the root /config but it also removes the subdirectory /app/config.

How can I keep the subdirectory /app/config?

Answer 1

A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname. For example, "/*.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".