Add daily email for 2024-01-28

Ignoring things globally

source/_daily_emails/2024-01-28.md

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+---
+title: Ignoring things globally
+date: 2024-01-28
+permalink: archive/2024/01/28/ignoring-things-globally
+snippet: |
+  Have you wanted to ignore things globally? Git has a setting for that.
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - git
+---
+
+Yesterday's email was about repository-specific .gitignore files and different ways to write them.
+
+But there's a setting that most people don't know about, where you can configure a global `.gitignore` file.
+
+## What I use it for
+
+Whilst it doesn't replace repository-specific files, it's good for operating system-specific files - such as `.DS_Store` files on macOS.
+
+I have a convention where I have a `.ignored` directory in a project, and everything in it should be ignored by Git.
+
+Instead of adding this to every `.gitignore` file, and because it's specific to me, it's a good choice for a global ignore file.
+
+Anything that affects multiple users - such as ignoring `vendor` or `node_modules` should still be set in each repository.
+
+## How do you add it?
+
+Add this to your `~/.gitconfig` or `~/.config/git/config` file to set the path for your global ignore file:
+
+```plain
+[core]
+  excludesFile = "~/.config/git/ignore"
+```
+
+Then, create the file and add what you want to ignore everywhere.
+
+Just remember this is specific to you, and if others have something you've ignored globally and they haven't, they could still add and commit it.