I'm hoping to get the following feature implemented into git. Add the ability to recursively include using: !/my_dir/**/* Currently, in order to include a directory with multiple sub-directories within a excluded directory, you must do the following: !/my_dir/ !/my_dir/* !/my_dir/*/* !/my_dir/*/*/* !/my_dir/*/*/*/* !/my_dir/*/*/*/*/* Here is a use case: When developing a WordPress site you typically only place the wp-content/themes directory under version control. Once you start adding custom plugins, README files, and a task manager like Grunt JS, you then have to starting getting creative with your .gitignore if your .git directory is in the web root directory. Here is an example: https://gist.github.com/AJ-Acevedo/6859779 Thanks for taking the time to consider this feature AJ -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html