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When in magit, I pressed i on a file and asked if I would like to ignore the file locally or globally. I chose locally.

I assumed that it would write a line in my .gitignore file but unfortunately that's not the case and I can't find any reference for un-ignoring said file.

How can I un-ignore a file ignored locally with magit?

Version info:

GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.30) of 2018-07-05
Magit 20190202.1535, Git 2.20.1, Emacs 26.1, gnu/linux
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  • Probably look in .git/info/exclude
    – phils
    Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 23:34
  • @phils - wow there it is, thanks! Could you submit that as an answer?
    – Richard de Wit
    Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 23:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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.git/info/exclude is where "local" (only in your working copy; not tracked) ignore patterns are listed. This is a standard feature of Git.

Magit writes to either that file or .gitignore, as required.

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  • 1
    So if I'm correct: "locally" writes to .git/info/exclude, whereas "globally" writes to .gitignore?
    – Richard de Wit
    Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 23:44
  • 4
    Yes, the "globally" terminology seems to have been introduced in v2.90.0, and it does indeed mean the repository's tracked .gitignore file. The term might be considered a bit ambiguous, as Git provides a third ignore option which is arguably "more global" (setting core.excludesFile in ~/.gitconfig, which affects any repository), which I think easily leads to the misunderstanding you experienced -- particularly when .git/info/exclude is unfamiliar. Perhaps the phrasing in the pop-up needs to be reconsidered.
    – phils
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 0:51
  • 5
    Jonas has improved the terminology and command set on the transient branch, which should land in master soon. The gitignore popup includes "shared at toplevel (.gitignore)" => magit-gitignore-in-topdir, "shared in subdirectory (path/to/.gitignore)" => magit-gitignore-in-subdir, "privately (.git/info/exclude)" => magit-gitignore-in-gitdir, and "privately for all repositories (<core.excludesfile>)" => magit-gitignore-on-system.
    – Kyle Meyer
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 16:58
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    github.com/magit/magit/commit/… and github.com/magit/magit/commit/… show that the docstrings are likewise clarified, so everything seems to have been taken care of already :)
    – phils
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 19:33
  • The transient branch has now been merged to master, so early-adopters will be seeing these changes now, and presumably everyone else will see it from version 2.91.
    – phils
    Commented Feb 16, 2019 at 1:47

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