Gitignore — Free Git & GitHub Tutorial

Learn Gitignore in Git & GitHub with a free, beginner-friendly tutorial, examples and practice for Indian students on Syllab.in.

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TL;DR: Learn Gitignore in Git & GitHub with a free, beginner-friendly tutorial, examples and practice for Indian students on Syllab.in.

Written & reviewed by the Syllab.in Academic Team (CBSE/NCERT subject experts) · Updated Sep 1, 2026

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Gitignore in Git & GitHub

Not all files should be in Git. Temporary files, API keys, passwords, and large binaries like node_modules/ should be excluded. You do this with a `.gitignore` file.

.gitignore is a simple text file that lists patterns of files Git should ignore. If you accidentally commit a secret key, delete it from Git history before pushing to GitHub!

Priya and Arjun create a `.gitignore` file to exclude node_modules/, .env (which has passwords), and macOS .DS_Store files. This keeps their repository clean and secure.

Gitignore — Syntax

# In .gitignore file:
node_modules/
.env
.DS_Store
*.log
build/

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