Question

I’ve just started to learn C (using Thinking In C) and I’m wondering about what files I should be ignoring in a C project’s git repository.

No suggestion can be too obvious — I’m a total noob. Thanks!

Answer 1

I guess there will be a few generated files that you don’t wan’t to be sticking in your repo (assuming your build output dir is in your git heirachy):

• object files (.o, o.obj)
• libraries (.lib)
• DLLs, shared objects (.so, .dll)
• Executables (.exe, a.out ?)

GIT ignore files are something I tend to do iteratively. “Hey, I don’t need those things in my repo” …

Edit: re dmckee’s comment

Yep, you definately want to be ignoring swap files, temp files etc. I have the following as a baseline for my .gitignore:

• *.swp
• .~
• thumbs.db