Git Ignore and Cleanup

Question 1

Q: What is .gitignore in Git?

Answer 1

A: A file that specifies files or patterns that Git should ignore and not track.

Question 2

Q: How do you ignore all .log files in a repository?

Answer 2

A: Add *.log to the .gitignore file.

Question 3

Q: How do you ignore a specific file, e.g., config.php?

Answer 3

A: Add config.php to the .gitignore file.

Question 4

Q: How do you ignore an entire directory, e.g., node_modules/?

Answer 4

A: Add node_modules/ to the .gitignore file.

Question 5

Q: How do you create a .gitignore file?

Answer 5

A: Create a file named .gitignore in the root of the repository and add patterns to it.

Question 6

Q: How do you exclude .gitignore from being ignored itself?

Answer 6

A: Ensure .gitignore is not listed in .gitignore.

Question 7

Q: How do you list all ignored files in a repository?

Answer 7

A: Use git status –ignored.

Question 8

Q: What happens if a file already tracked by Git is added to .gitignore?

Answer 8

A: Git will continue tracking it until it is manually removed from the index.

Question 9

Q: How do you stop tracking a file without deleting it from the working directory?

Answer 9

A: Use git rm –cached <file>.</file>

Question 10

Q: How do you ignore all files in a directory except one, e.g., keep important.txt in docs/?

Answer 10

A: Add docs/* and !docs/important.txt to .gitignore.

Question 11

Q: What is the difference between .gitignore and .git/info/exclude?

Answer 11

A: .gitignore is shared and tracked by Git, while .git/info/exclude is local and not shared.

Question 12

Q: How do you globally ignore files across all repositories?

Answer 12

A: Add patterns to a global ignore file and configure it using git config –global core.excludesfile <path>.</path>

Question 13

Q: How do you untrack all files listed in .gitignore?

Answer 13

A: Use git rm -r –cached ., then git add ., and commit the changes.

Question 14

Q: What does git clean do?

Answer 14

A: Removes untracked files and directories from the working directory.

Question 15

Q: How do you perform a dry-run of git clean to see what would be removed?

Answer 15

A: Use git clean -n.

Question 16

Q: How do you remove untracked files in Git?

Answer 16

A: Use git clean -f.

Question 17

Q: How do you remove untracked directories in Git?

Answer 17

A: Use git clean -fd.

Question 18

Q: How do you remove untracked files and directories, including ignored files?

Answer 18

A: Use git clean -fxd.

Question 19

Q: What is the purpose of git gc?

Answer 19

A: git gc runs garbage collection, optimising the repository by cleaning up unnecessary files and objects.

Question 20

Q: How do you clean up dangling objects in Git?

Answer 20

A: Use git gc –prune=<time> or git prune.</time>

Question 21

Q: What does git prune do?

Answer 21

A: Removes unreachable objects from the repository.

Question 22

Q: How do you identify large files in your repository?

Answer 22

A: Use git rev-list –objects –all | sort -k 2.

Question 23

Q: How do you remove a large file from the entire Git history?

Answer 23

A: Use git filter-repo or BFG Repo-Cleaner.

Question 24

Q: How do you avoid committing large or sensitive files in the first place?

Answer 24

A: Add them to .gitignore or use Git LFS for large files.

Question 25

Q: How do you prevent git clean from removing ignored files?

Answer 25

A: Do not use the -x flag when running git clean.