Ignore files

3 snippets across 2 stacks — Docker, Git

DKDocker

.dockerignore — Exclude Build Context

syntax

# .dockerignore file
pattern
dir/

example

node_modules
.git
*.md
.env
dist
.DS_Store
coverage

Note Place this file next to your Dockerfile. Without it, Docker sends everything in the build context to the daemon, including node_modules (hundreds of MB), .git history, and possibly secrets in .env files. This is one of the highest-impact optimizations you can make.

Always Use .dockerignore

DK · Best Practices

syntax

# .dockerignore

example

node_modules
.git
*.md
.env*
coverage
dist
.DS_Store
__pycache__
*.pyc
.venv

Note Without .dockerignore, a COPY . . sends everything to the daemon including .git (often 100MB+), node_modules, environment files with secrets, and test coverage reports. Builds become slow and images become bloated.

GitGit

Ignoring Files with .gitignore

Git · Setup & Config

syntax

# .gitignore file patterns:
pattern
dir/
*.ext
!exception

example

# .gitignore
node_modules/
*.log
.env
.DS_Store
build/

# Track this specific log despite the wildcard:
!important.log

Note If a file is already tracked, adding it to .gitignore will NOT stop tracking it. You must first run: git rm --cached <file> to untrack it.