Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@salcode
Last active February 10, 2024 10:56
Show Gist options
  • Save salcode/9940509 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save salcode/9940509 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
See https://salferrarello.com/wordpress-gitignore/ for the latest version of my WordPress .gitignore file
# -----------------------------------------------------------------
# .gitignore for WordPress
# Bare Minimum Git
# http://ironco.de/bare-minimum-git/
# ver 20150227
#
# This file is tailored for a WordPress project
# using the default directory structure
#
# This file specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
# http://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore
#
# NOTES:
# The purpose of gitignore files is to ensure that certain files not
# tracked by Git remain untracked.
#
# To ignore uncommitted changes in a file that is already tracked,
# use `git update-index --assume-unchanged`.
#
# To stop tracking a file that is currently tracked,
# use `git rm --cached`
#
# Change Log:
# 20150227 Ignore hello.php plugin. props @damienfa
# 20150227 Change theme ignore to wildcard twenty*. props @Z33
# 20140606 Add .editorconfig as a tracked file
# 20140404 Ignore database, compiled, and packaged files
# 20140404 Header Information Updated
# 20140402 Initially Published
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------
# ignore everything in the root except the "wp-content" directory.
/*
!wp-content/
# ignore all files starting with .
.*
# track this file .gitignore (i.e. do NOT ignore it)
!.gitignore
# track .editorconfig file (i.e. do NOT ignore it)
!.editorconfig
# track readme.md in the root (i.e. do NOT ignore it)
!readme.md
# ignore all files that start with ~
~*
# ignore OS generated files
ehthumbs.db
Thumbs.db
# ignore Editor files
*.sublime-project
*.sublime-workspace
*.komodoproject
# ignore log files and databases
*.log
*.sql
*.sqlite
# ignore compiled files
*.com
*.class
*.dll
*.exe
*.o
*.so
# ignore packaged files
*.7z
*.dmg
*.gz
*.iso
*.jar
*.rar
*.tar
*.zip
# ignore everything in the "wp-content" directory, except:
# "mu-plugins" directory
# "plugins" directory
# "themes" directory
wp-content/*
!wp-content/mu-plugins/
!wp-content/plugins/
!wp-content/themes/
# ignore these plugins
wp-content/plugins/hello.php
# ignore specific themes
wp-content/themes/twenty*/
# ignore node/grunt dependency directories
node_modules/
@dotZak
Copy link

dotZak commented Aug 12, 2015

Probably should include:

!wp-content/languages

@joequery
Copy link

Thanks for the file. Why ignore plugins though?

@acal
Copy link

acal commented Sep 4, 2015

I like the idea of ignoring the plugins in order to conserve repo size. I'd think ideally, all plugins (custom or third party) should be contained as an object in a discrete repo. Utilities like Composer or even a good old Readme file should allow one to find and install the required plugins to run the WP site/app.

@mvhoute
Copy link

mvhoute commented Sep 5, 2015

Good list, but I feel you should also add:

.DS_Store (OSX Filesystem)
.idea (For PHPStorm etc.)

@matthijsleenen
Copy link

@mvhoute, no need to exclude these implicitly, they are automatically excluded by excluding . files on line #38.

@ajmerainfo
Copy link

I like this idea but quick question. Do I need to event push entire WordPress copy first time or not?
And if not then if might in future developer use new version of WP and if something is not support with that version then how it should go workflow?

@salcode
Copy link
Author

salcode commented Oct 15, 2015

@chrisgeary92 Thanks for your input, I go back and forth on this idea. For 99% of the project on which I work, we update the plugins from within WordPress. When doing development, I pull the repo, run composer, and then update the plugin if necessary. For the other 1% of projects, I do add composer.lock.

@salcode
Copy link
Author

salcode commented Oct 15, 2015

@ajmerainfo With the backwards compatibility of WordPress, I see this as a rare problem and if it were to occur I'd have to deal with it manually. I know some prefer to keep WordPress core as a composer dependency, which I believe would address your concern.

@salcode
Copy link
Author

salcode commented Oct 15, 2015

As I mentioned above, I'm now using this WordPress .gitignore file instead, which ignores everything by default and allows me to whitelist only those plugins and themes I want to version control. Of course, use whatever works best for you.

@junibrosas
Copy link

Is it better to just create a repository from your theme only and not the whole Wordpress files?

@salcode
Copy link
Author

salcode commented Dec 22, 2015

@junibrosas I would say it depends on what you're building. When I'm doing a site for client, which is what I'm doing most of the time, I create the repo from the root of the website. If I'm specifically just building a theme, not an entire site, then I create the repo for just the theme folder.

Some people prefer to have one project repo (for the entire project) and use a separate repo within the project repo for the theme. For me, I find this adds a lot of complexity and very little benefit, so I do not do this.

@chancesmith
Copy link

@interglobalmedia
Copy link

Very helpful @salcode. Thanks so much for sharing.

@seanbranam
Copy link

@salcode Thanks for sharing!

@Andekas
Copy link

Andekas commented Sep 24, 2016

Thanks!

You should add .idea for phpstorm project files also.

@salcode
Copy link
Author

salcode commented Sep 27, 2016

@Andekas

You should add .idea for phpstorm project files also.

A good thought but this folder is already excluded due to

# ignore all files starting with .
.*

As a side note, I'm now using this other WordPress .gitignore file, which excludes everything by default, allowing me to whitelist only those plugins and/or themes I want to include.

@paradigmaweb
Copy link

paradigmaweb commented Mar 11, 2017

maybe you could add:

# sublime sftp sensitive info
sftp-config.json

@salcode
Copy link
Author

salcode commented Jun 12, 2017

@paradigmaweb

Thanks for the note. If sftp-config.json is in the root of the project, it should already be ignored. (Everything in the root of the project is ignored unless it is specifically whitelisted, e.g. !.gitignore)

If you're not seeing that behavior (or if you have a use-case for sftp-config.json in a different location), let me know and I'll take a look at it. Unfortunately, Gists don't provide notifications when a comment is left. If you want to leave a comment at https://salferrarello.com/wordpress-gitignore/ instead, I'll get notified in a much more timely manner.

Thanks.

@juanpasolano
Copy link

How do you clone a project with this project structure?
Something like
git clone <repo> . throws fatal: destination path '.' already exists and is not an empty directory.

@sipy
Copy link

sipy commented Nov 16, 2017

Hello, I'm now using this gitignore for development. My question is on the plugins management:

It's very useful to have plugins tracked across environments and this gitignore tracks them unless you ignore specific plugins (like hello.php ecc..) which is fine. The problem is when the plugins have been updated. The files will sync because they are tracked in the GIT repo, which is ok. But what if the updated version of the plugin needs a DB update/upgrade, too? If so, you must always deactivate and activate again all the updated and pulled plugins to ensure eventual tables of the plugins are synced, too.

Do you have a solution for this problem or it is better to not track the plugins at all and install them manually on each environment which is a little bit frustrating to me?

Thanks

@ummahusla
Copy link

Thank you

@andrebian
Copy link

Thanks a lot. It worked fine!

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment