# .gitignore not working **URL:** \ **Category:** Git\ **Created:** [March 28, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639 "2021-03-28T17:21:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aksu27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cdc98d/32.png) [@aksu27](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/aksu27)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/1 "2021-03-28T17:21:12Z")
Hello fellow students of Mosh I am currently taking the Node course for a project I am working on for my university. I am trying to use .gitignore to exclude node\_modules but it doesn’t seem to be working. First I thought that this might be due to the node\_modules folder being under another folder. But even when I moved the .gitignore file to the same folder as the node\_modules it’s still not working. Do you guys have any suggestions on how can I solve this? ---
**Author:** ![AzharUddinSheikh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.codewithmosh.com/azharuddinsheikh/32/5561_2.png) [@AzharUddinSheikh](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/AzharUddinSheikh)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/2 "2021-03-29T07:54:36Z")
what command you are using to exclude may I know try this in bash: touch .gitignore (creating file) echo node\_modules\>\>.gitignore (this ll add your file into git ignore)) note \>\> if you already add this file (node\_modules) to staging area then this file ll not be ignored ---
**Author:** ![gagglepod](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.codewithmosh.com/gagglepod/32/508_2.png) [@gagglepod](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/gagglepod)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/3 "2021-03-29T14:33:04Z")
My .gitignore file sits a the root of my project folder. All that I have in it is: _node\_modules/_ _coverage/_ That works for me. ---
**Author:** ![William](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@William](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/William)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 11:35am UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/4 "2021-03-30T11:35:54Z")
> [@AzharUddinSheikh](#): > > note \>\> if you already add this file (node\_modules) to staging area then this file ll not be ignored This is indeed important. ---
**Author:** ![aksu27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cdc98d/32.png) [@aksu27](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/aksu27)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 11:56am UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/5 "2021-04-02T11:56:45Z")
What does that exactly mean, the staging area? ---
**Author:** ![aksu27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cdc98d/32.png) [@aksu27](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/aksu27)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/6 "2021-04-02T11:58:44Z")
I am not using any commands over terminal. I am working on the project over VSC and that is how I basically created the .gitignore file. ---
**Author:** ![William](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@William](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/William)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/7 "2021-04-02T12:16:30Z")
Creating .gitignore by VSC or from terminal is both okay. As a test you could create a new project, add .gitignore file and than do the GIT commands. Still the same problem? ---
**Author:** ![AzharUddinSheikh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.codewithmosh.com/azharuddinsheikh/32/5561_2.png) [@AzharUddinSheikh](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/AzharUddinSheikh)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/8 "2021-04-02T15:35:38Z")
Git staging is an area where git allow to continue making changes to the working directory When you do git add \* (it means you add all your file to staging area) if you want to ignore some file it is necessary to add file into gitignore before running this command (git add \*) ---
**Author:** ![aksu27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cdc98d/32.png) [@aksu27](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/aksu27)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/9 "2021-04-02T15:47:53Z")
Well, before I do git add\*, the .gitignore file is already set including the files to be excluded. ---
**Author:** ![aksu27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cdc98d/32.png) [@aksu27](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/aksu27)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/10 "2021-04-02T15:51:09Z")
So it’s basically trying to add both files, .gitignore and node\_modules, to the staging area at the same time. But I guess it is supposed exclude node\_modules in this case right? ---
**Author:** ![AzharUddinSheikh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.codewithmosh.com/azharuddinsheikh/32/5561_2.png) [@AzharUddinSheikh](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/u/AzharUddinSheikh)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 4:41pm UTC](https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/gitignore-not-working/3639/11 "2021-04-02T16:41:59Z")
I didn’t get you let say I have 2 file in a root folder (file1.py and file2.py) but I want to ignore file2 and commit Here what I do > git init > touch .gitignore > echo file2.py \> .gitignore > git add \* (.gitignore and file1 ll be added) > git commit -am"initial commit" Test Lets edit file2 > git status > (You ll see a message nothing to commit )