How to Globally Ignore macOS .DS_Store Files in Git
This guide explains why macOS .DS_Store files appear in Git repositories, how to add them to a project .gitignore, and provides a step‑by‑step method to set up a global .gitignore so the files are ignored across all your repositories.
.DS_Store files are hidden macOS metadata files that can accidentally be added to a Git repository, which is annoying for developers.
Normally you add .DS_Store to a project‑level .gitignore, but you can also set a global ignore file so the rule applies to all repositories on your machine.
Step 1: Create a global ignore file, e.g. ~/.gitignore, and add the patterns you want to exclude, for example:
.DS_StoreYou can add other patterns as needed.
Step 2: Tell Git to use this file globally:
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignoreAfter this configuration, Git will automatically ignore the listed files in every repository. Remember that for team projects you should still keep a repository‑specific .gitignore to share ignore rules with collaborators.
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Programmer DD
A tinkering programmer and author of "Spring Cloud Microservices in Action"
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