gitignore.nvim

A neovim plugin for generating .gitignore files in seconds, by allowing you to select from a huge number of different technologies.

This plugin is functionally identical to the service offered by gitignore.io, but capable of generating .gitignore files offline, and directly from within neovim.

1. Installation
2. Usage
3. Demo
4. Credits

Installation & Dependencies

gitignore.nvim optionally depends on telescope.nvim to provide multi-selection. Without installing telescope you will not be able to select multiple technologies.

After installing telescope.nvim, you can install gitignore.nvim like this:

Using lazy.nvim

{"wintermute-cell/gitignore.nvim",
    config = function()
        require('gitignore')
    end,
}

Using packer.nvim:

use({
     "wintermute-cell/gitignore.nvim",
     requires = {
        "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim" -- optional: for multi-select
     }
})

Usage

This plugin ships with only one command which when run, it will create a buffer with the .gitignore contents:

:Gitignore [path]

If an existing .gitignore is found, the generated contents will be appended to the existing lines. The buffer will not save automatically, so there is no risk of overwriting an existing .gitignore.

You can optionally pass a path argument to point the command to a specific directory (for example if you have nested .gitignore files).

Alternatively, you can use the corresponding lua function directly, for example to create a keymap:

local gitignore = require("gitignore")
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>gi", gitignore.generate)

Or with a path:

local gitignore = require("gitignore")
local my_path = "./some/path"
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>gi",
    function ()
        gitignore.generate(my_path)
    end
)

Selecting multiple items

Without telescope, gitignore.nvim does not allow you to select multiple technologies for your .gitignore, since the fallback picker, vim.ui.select(), can only select one item. Therefore, if you want to be able to select multiple technologies, you must either install telescope.nvim (you may find an example using packer.nvim in the Installation section), or override the provided generate method with your own implementation (see section below).

gitignore.nvim will detect if telescope.nvim is installed and use it automatically, there is no further configuration required.

Selecting multiple items with telescope.nvim installed

gitignore.nvim makes use of telescope.nvim's multi-selection keybinds. This means that by default, you can (de-)select multiple keywords with <Tab>, and confirm your selection with <CR> (Enter). In case of multiple selected keywords, the keyword highlighted you press <CR> on will not be added to the selection!

For convenience, when no multi-selection is made before pressing <CR>, <CR> will actually add the highlighted item to the selection, and create a .gitignore file for the single keyword.

Configuration

If you want the :Gitignore command to overwrite your current .gitignore instead of appending to it, you can set:

vim.g.gitignore_nvim_overwrite = true

If this variable is set to false, or not set at all, :Gitignore will take into account an existing .gitignore.

Alternatively, you may call the command with a bang, like this:

:Gitignore! [path]

This will have the same effect as setting vim.g.gitignore_nvim_overwrite = true for a single call.

Custom Picker

Instead of using telescope.nvim or the native vim.ui.select(), you may implement your own solution according to the following contract:

1. gitignore.nvim provides list of templateNames and two methods generate and createGititnoreBuffer.
2. As its first parameter, the generate method will receive an opts table, containing the target path for the .gitignore in opts.args.
3. One must pass on opts.args, and a list of selected templateNames to createGitignoreBuffer.

Here's an example implementation using fzf-lua:

local gitignore = require("gitignore")
local fzf = require("fzf-lua")

gitignore.generate = function(opts)
    local picker_opts = {
        -- the content of opts.args may also be displayed here for example.
        prompt = "Select templates for gitignore file> ",
        winopts = {
            width = 0.4,
            height = 0.3,
        },
        actions = {
            default = function(selected, _)
                -- as stated in point (3) of the contract above, opts.args and
                -- a list of selected templateNames are passed.
                gitignore.createGitignoreBuffer(opts.args, selected)
            end,
        },
    }
    fzf.fzf_exec(function(fzf_cb)
        for _, prefix in ipairs(gitignore.templateNames) do
            fzf_cb(prefix)
        end
        fzf_cb()
    end, picker_opts)
end

Note Note that the above will not overwrite the :Gitignore command. To do that, recreate the command after defining your generate function as follows:

vim.api.nvim_create_user_command("Gitignore", gitignore.generate, { nargs = "?", complete = "file" })

Demo

Credits

Thanks to Toptal for providing a huge list of ignore-templates!