.DS_Store
file in MacOSIf you are a Mac user, you may have noticed that your computer sometimes creates files called .DS_Store
which are visible when you run ls -a
or git status
.
Mac creates the .DS_Store
files in each folder to store information about how the icons in that folder should be displayed. It is a hidden folder (becuase it starts with a .
) which means that it doesn’t appear in the finder, or when you run an ls
, but it is there. You can see it by running ls -a
.
The .DS_Store
file can cause conflicts if they end up in your git repository, especially when you’re working on a project with other mac users.
Try not to commit .DS_Store
files to your GitHub repos.
Here is one way to make sure git always ignores the .DS_Store
file so that you remove the possibility of accidentally committing it to a repo.
One member of your team can create a file called .gitignore
, which tells git to ignore certain files or file types.
cd
into the folder containing your project (the folder must be a git repository). Make sure you’re on the master branch and that all changse so far have been committed. git status
should show the staging area is empty.
Add the .gitignore
file
touch .gitignore
echo ".DS_Store" > .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "make git ignore .DS_Store files"
git push
That’s it. Git will now always ignore the .DS_Store
file in that repository.