> GitHub, GitLab, and Gitea all respect .gitignore and won’t show ignored files in the web UI
Is this right? These tools don't show ignored files because they aren't part of the repository. If a now-ignored file has made it into the repository, surely you want to see it?
`git add -f` will add ignored files. Once you've done that, any files you've added will be part of your commit regardless of the contents of .gitignore.
This is a well put together list. One thing that frustrates me is that not all tooling respects mailmap. IntelliJ has an open feature/bug request for integrating mailmap into its git functionality. Additionally, the .git-blame-ignore-revs is more of a convention because you still have to manually configure that to be the file name to use.
You still want to put these kinds of things in every project where you are collaborating. You can't depend on everyone to know and do this, so best to just be prepared for those who don't.
I have mixed feelings about it really, I am aware of it, and use it in my dot files, but I think it's quite a gotcha - just recently actually I've been thinking to remove it.
It catches me out when something's ignored I don't expect, and it's not clear why in the working directory/repo, only for me to remember about the global one.
It catches others out (or catches me out by their doing) in collaboration when say I've not committed something, not even really been aware of the potential hazard, and that's been desired; but then someone else comes along and `git commit -a`s it.
But then where it is particularly useful is myriad tools that fall back on git ignore in lieu of (or in addition to) their own ignore files...
Is this right? These tools don't show ignored files because they aren't part of the repository. If a now-ignored file has made it into the repository, surely you want to see it?
Doing it the other way around is also possible but harder as the git client will refuse but can be convinced.
They will show the files in your repo.
gitignore just decides whether untracked files appear as new or ignored. (But you can commit them anyway if you are so inclined.)
(shrug)
This is not true, .mailmap is [unfortunately] not supported by GitHub: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/22518
If you configure your git client to use it, git blame will fail in any repository in which one is not present.
https://nesbitt.io/2026/02/12/the-many-flavors-of-ignore-fil...
News to me and a lot of people.
I see a lot of .DS_Store in a lot of gitignore.
It catches me out when something's ignored I don't expect, and it's not clear why in the working directory/repo, only for me to remember about the global one.
It catches others out (or catches me out by their doing) in collaboration when say I've not committed something, not even really been aware of the potential hazard, and that's been desired; but then someone else comes along and `git commit -a`s it.
But then where it is particularly useful is myriad tools that fall back on git ignore in lieu of (or in addition to) their own ignore files...