Using .gitignore to control Git file tracking

When working in the Translator there may be certain files you do not want to track in a Git repository, such as files that may contain confidential information. A Git Ignore (.gitignore) file can be added to a Translator project to exclude files from being traced by Git.

How to create a .gitignore file to the Translator:

STEP 1: In terminal or command prompt, navigate to your Iguana X repository file for the desired component.

Navigate to your Iguana X component repos file. You may find this in the default location:

For Windows:

C:\ProgramData\IguanaX\repos\<component_guid>

For Linux:

/home/<user>/iguana/repos/<component_guid>

STEP 2: Create a .gitignore file for your component.

For Windows:

Create the .gitignore hidden file

echo. > .gitignore

Open the file in notepad to manually edit the file.

notepad .gitignore

For Linux:

Create the .gitignore hidden file

touch .gitignore

Open the file in editor mode

vi .gitignore

STEP 3: Edit .gitignore to exclude files from being tracked by git.

Specify the files which you want to ignore, meaning they will be excluded from your repository.

You can also add exceptions to your exclusions. For example, you can add exceptions to the Samples folder if you have some sample data that doesn’t have any sensitive info that you want to keep in the component’s Git history (e.g. if it’s a template component).

The following example includes an example .gitignore file for sample data:

# Ignore all files within the "Samples" folder
/Samples/*

# Exceptions (files to include)
!/Samples/Sample_001

STEP 4: In the Translator, make a commit, push your commit to your linked repository and check if the files exist.

Once you’ve created your .gitignore file, any changes you commit and push to your linked upstream repository will not contain the ignored files. You can confirm this by navigating to your repository and viewing the latest commits.