Please see https://salferrarello.com/wordpress-gitignore/ for the canonical version of this WordPress .gitignore file. Note: I do not receive notifications for comments here (because GitHub does not send notifications on Gists)

.gitignore

# -----------------------------------------------------------------
# .gitignore for WordPress @salcode
# ver 20180808
#
# From the root of your project run
# curl -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/salcode/b515f520d3f8207ecd04/raw/.gitignore
# to download this file
#
# By default all files are ignored.  You'll need to whitelist
# any mu-plugins, plugins, or themes you want to include in the repo.
#
# 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:
# 20180808 unignore site.webmanifest
# 20180714 unignore .phpcs.xml.dist
# 20160309 Added favicon files as whitelisted files
# 20150302 Added composer.json as a whitelisted file
# 20150227 Created as fork of https://gist.github.com/salcode/9940509,
#   this version ignores all files by default
# -----------------------------------------------------------------

# ignore everything in the root except the "wp-content" directory.
/*
!wp-content/

# ignore everything in the "wp-content" directory, except:
# mu-plugins, plugins, and themes directories
wp-content/*
!wp-content/mu-plugins/
!wp-content/plugins/
!wp-content/themes/

# ignore all mu-plugins, plugins, and themes
# unless explicitly whitelisted at the end of this file
wp-content/mu-plugins/*
wp-content/plugins/*
wp-content/themes/*

# ignore all files starting with . or ~
.*
~*

# ignore node dependency directories (used by grunt)
node_modules/

# 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

# -------------------------
# BEGIN Whitelisted Files
# -------------------------

# track these files, if they exist
!.gitignore
!.editorconfig
!.phpcs.xml.dist
!README.md
!CHANGELOG.md
!composer.json

# track favicon files, if they exist
!android-chrome-*.png
!apple-touch-icon*.png
!browserconfig.xml
!favicon*.png
!favicon*.ico
!manifest.json
!mstile-*.png
!safari-pinned-tab.svg
!site.webmanifest

# track these mu-plugins, plugins, and themes
# add your own entries here
!wp-content/mu-plugins/example-mu-plugin/
!wp-content/plugins/example-plugin/
!wp-content/themes/example-theme/

My website backups serve this purpose better than my Git repo

I bet, the idea was to be able to run the site the way it was at some arbitrary commit. For example, you see the code, but can't figure out what it does. Sometimes it's better to debug the code, then try to do it in your head.

There was a time I included all of WordPress core in my repos and it became painful
I've had the opportunity to interact with developers much smarter than myself and they're not including WordPress core in their repos

Unfortunately, these two doesn't explain anything. They assume whoever reads this post trusts you on your choice. Honestly, I don't. Not since I have reasons to not trust you. But since I have no reasons to trust you yet. So these ones doesn't count for me as they are.

@x-yuri

the idea was to be able to run the site the way it was at some arbitrary commit

In this case, I would add !composer.lock to my .gitignore file and load WordPress core as a dependency with Composer. This would allow me to track the version of WordPress core (as well as any plugins I load with Composer).

Overall, it sounds like you want to check WordPress core into your Git repo. While I personally wouldn't do that for my reasons listed above, I have no problem if you choose to. Different people like different things. All the best.

@salcode I would also add

# ignore OS generated files
...
.DS_Store
...

@Bloafer thanks for the suggestion.

Since .DS_Store starts with a . it should already be ignored by

# ignore all files starting with . or ~
.*

The OS generated files we specifically ignore are those that do not start with a .

@salcode Since you whitelist some folders (theme, plugins) at the end of the .gitignore file, the previous ignore-rules get revoked. So, how do you prevent i.e. OS generated files inside those whitelisted folders?

(I had this problem with .DS_Store files inside my main theme and for a quickfix I ignored that file again at the very end to remove them from git. But that's not very elegant.)

@michelluarasi I'm not able to recreate the behavior you're describing.

For example if I:

• create a whitelisted plugin directory, e.g. wp-content/plugins/example-plugin/
• add a file like .DS_Store inside the plugin directory, e.g. wp-content/plugins/example-plugin/.DS_Store

I still don't see .DS_Store come up when I run git status.

Can you describe the steps to reproduce the behavior you're seeing? Thanks.

Still using it in 2023 with WP 6.2! Thanks! Fits in with my workflow wonderfully