Best general SVN Ignore Pattern?

Question

What is the best (or as good as possible) general SVN ignore pattern to use?

There are a number of different IDE, editor, compiler, plug-in, platform, etc. specific files and some file types that "overlap" (i.e. desirable for some types projects and not for others).

There are however, a large number of file types that you just never want included in source control automatically regardless the specifics of your development environment.

The answer to this question would serve as a good starting point for any project - only requiring them to add the few environment specific items they need. It could be adapted for other Version Control Systems (VCS) as well.

Answer 1

Used for my Visual Studio projects

*/bin */obj *.user *.suo

You can expand more file types from there.

Answer 2

I'll add my own two cents to this question:

I use the following SVN ignore pattern with TortoiseSVN and Subversion CLI for native C++, C#/VB.NET, and PERL projects on both Windows and Linux platforms. It works well for me!

Formatted for copy and paste:

*.o *.lo *.la #*# .*.rej *.rej .*~ *~ .#* .DS_Store thumbs.db Thumbs.db *.bak *.class *.exe *.dll *.mine *.obj *.ncb *.lib *.log *.idb *.pdb *.ilk *.msi* .res *.pch *.suo *.exp *.*~ *.~* ~*.* cvs CVS .CVS .cvs release Release debug Debug ignore Ignore bin Bin obj Obj *.csproj.user *.user

Formatted for readability:

*.o *.lo *.la #*# .*.rej *.rej
.*~ *~ .#* .DS_Store thumbs.db 
Thumbs.db *.bak *.class *.exe *.dll
*.mine *.obj *.ncb *.lib *.log 
*.idb *.pdb *.ilk *.msi* .res *.pch *.suo 
*.exp *.*~ *.~* ~*.* cvs  CVS .CVS .cvs  
release Release debug Debug
ignore Ignore bin Bin obj  Obj
*.csproj.user *.user

Answer 3

Windows users might want to throw in desktop.ini and thumbs.db.

Answer 4

Visual Studio (VC++) users definitely need to exclude the .ncb files

Answer 5

Every time I come across a file I generally do not want in the repository, I update the pattern. I believe there is no "best" pattern - it always depends on the language and environment you develop in.

Moreover, you're not very likely to think of all the possible "ignorable" filetypes - you'll always encounter a filetype you simply forgot to include. Thats why updating the pattern as you go works the best.

Answer 6

Mac users probably want to throw in .DS_Store. In addition, if there are dev's using Emacs or Vim, you probably want to add ~~ and ##.

Answer 7

The pattern depends on which operating system you're using.

On Linux, you'll want to block *.o, *.so, *.a, and *.la to begin with. You may also want to block *~ (backup file from editing) and #*# (emacs backup from a crash).

On Windows, you'll want *.obj, *.lib, and *.dll at the very least.

Any other files you need to block depend on your IDE, editor, and compiler.

Answer 8

For Eclipse, I use:

bin
.*

.* gets all the project configuration. You almost never want to check in a 'hidden' directory or file, but if it comes up, you can still svn add it.

Answer 9

Since you may be using third party libs and dll's as part of the project(s) then I don't see the wisdom in blocking *.lib and *.dll from the repository. These are the things that are meant to be stored in the repository.

Answer 10

I am trying to use TortoiseSVN Settings, as described by @Burly's answer, but a) I have to exclude from the commit list the types I don't want to store, and b) it leaves most of my source folders marked as 'modified'... Am I missing something basic? Or is it better to just store all the file types? Thanks in advance.

Answer 11

Based on Burly's ignore pattern, I have added ReSharper to the ignore list

*.o .lo .la ## ..rej .rej .~ ~ .# .DS_Store thumbs.db Thumbs.db *.bak *.class *.exe *.dll *.mine *.obj *.ncb *.lib *.log *.idb *.pdb *.ilk .msi .res *.pch *.suo *.exp .~ .~ ~. cvs CVS .CVS .cvs release Release debug Debug ignore Ignore bin Bin obj Obj *.csproj.user *.user ReSharper. *.resharper.user

3/7

Answer 12

My ignore pattern for Visual Studio:

*/bin */obj */Release */Debug *.suo *.err *.log *.obj *.bin *.dll *.exe *.LOG *.user *.pdb [tT]emp [tT]empPE Ankh.Load thumbs.db *.resharper *.vspscc *.vsssccc *.scc */_ReSharper* */_ReSharper.* bin obj *.resharperoptions *.db *.bak *_ReSharper* *.snk logs output TestResults

Answer 13

Gotta add Resharper to the mix if you use one.

another one to look out for is Ankh*.*