# Ignoring the .gitignore file

Today I have a small disagreement with GIT and `gitignore` rules. When you add a file to a GIT repository, it is tracked by GIT. Then adding it to `.gitignore` won’t make GIT forget about that file.

In this post, I will explain how to stop GIT from tracking a file that is already tracked. You can use this cool command for this situation.

```bash
git rm --cached the_file_that_should_be_not_tracked.txt
```

If you modify the file again and run git status, you won’t see the file in the GIT repository. The problem with this command is that this file won’t be a part of the GIT repository anymore. This means it will be deleted on the remote when you push the repository.

Sometimes you want to push a file to the remote and forget it. You don’t need to edit it anymore. If you want GIT to assume the file is unchanged, You can use the command below:

```bash
git update-index --assume-unchanged the_no_edit_file.txt
```

`git update-index` wants the file names as an argument, so if you need to apply it to a directory, you may use the command below.

```bash
cd the_no_edit_directory
git ls-files -z | xargs -0 git update-index --assume-unchanged
```

That is exactly what we desire. Edits to this file are ignored by GIT, and the file is still on the remote repository.

### References

1.  [https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rm](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rm)
    
2.  [https://git-scm.com/docs/git-update-index](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-update-index)