git-ignore: A CLI Tool to Generate .gitignore with a Single Command

Motivation

Every time I start a new project, I need to prepare a .gitignore file. Opening GitHub’s gitignore repository and copy-pasting is tedious, and while web services like gitignore.io exist, I wanted to complete everything without leaving the terminal.

So I created a simple CLI tool that generates .gitignore files with a single command.

Overview

Manually creating a .gitignore every time you start a new project involves too much context switching and is cumbersome.

git-ignore is a CLI tool that generates .gitignore files for specified languages with a single command. It fetches the latest content from GitHub’s official gitignore templates.

Installation

curl -fLRSs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hakadoriya/git-ignore/HEAD/git-ignore -o /tmp/git-ignore && \
  chmod +x /tmp/git-ignore && \
  sudo mv /tmp/git-ignore /usr/local/bin/

Usage

# Generate .gitignore for a Go project
git-ignore create go > .gitignore

# For Python
git-ignore new python > .gitignore

# Short forms also work
git-ignore c rust > .gitignore

The subcommands create, c, and new all perform the same action.

Using as a Git Subcommand

Git has a mechanism where if an executable file named git-xxx exists on your PATH, it can be invoked as git xxx like a subcommand.

Therefore, by placing git-ignore in a directory on your PATH, you can use it as git ignore:

git ignore create go > .gitignore

This enables a natural workflow of generating .gitignore with git ignore right after git init.

Supported Languages

Main supported languages:

Language	Aliases
Go	`go`, `golang`
Python	`python`, `py`
Rust	`rust`, `rs`
Node.js	`node`, `nodejs`, `js`, `ts`
C++	`cpp`, `cc`, `cxx`
Ruby	`ruby`, `rb`
Swift	`swift`
Kotlin	`kotlin`, `kt`
Terraform	`terraform`, `tf`

Beyond the above, you can specify any language name that exists in the GitHub gitignore repository directly.

# Example: Haskell
git-ignore create Haskell > .gitignore

Self-Update

The script can update itself to the latest version.

git-ignore self-update

A diff between the old and new versions is displayed so you can review the changes.

How It Works

Internally, it uses curl to fetch templates from GitHub’s Raw URL.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gitignore/refs/heads/main/{language}.gitignore

The only dependency is curl, and it runs as a single Bash script.