====== Using a per-user 'ignore' File for 'bitkeeper' ======

In many projects, a user's preferred editor or development environment (e.g. VS Code, Eclipse, kdevelop, ...)
creates some specific files or subdirectories inside the project directory, and these files shall
not be commited to the **''bitkeeper''** project.


A common way to avoid this is to add the file patterns for these files to the ''ignore'' file of the project,
namely ''BitKeeper/etc/ignore'' inside the project directory.

However, this approach has at least 2 disadvantages:

  * The user has to add the same file pattern to the ''ignore'' file of each project.

  * If several users work on a project with different editors, the shared ''ignore'' file has to contain all file patterns for all build environments preferred by any of the maintainers.


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A simple way to avoid this is to use a **personal ''ignore'' file**, where the user can add the ignore patterns that are used in any bitkeeper project he's working with.

It's very easy to set this up. Just edit or create a file named ''ignore'' below the personal configuration directory, i.e. ''~/.bk/ignore'' by default.

A cleaner way to find the real path to the personal configuration directory is to use the **''bk dotbk''** command, so the editor
can be run with the following command:

<codedoc code>
~~codedoc:<em>nano</em>~~ `bk dotbk`/ignore
</codedoc>

where ''nano'' in the example above has to be replaced by the name of your preferred text editor.


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For the format of the entries in the ignore file, refer to the help displayed by the ''bk help ignore'' command.

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 --- //Martin Burnicki [[martin.burnicki@burnicki.net]], last updated 2021-08-02//