How to Git-Ignore Symlinks on a Magento Module installed by composer

Question

I install modules using composer.phar.

This creates symlinks files in publichtml/app/code/community (for example) with a target to vendor/themodule....

In my .gitignore I excluded the vendor directory - but the links would of course still end up in the git.

Is there an easy way to automically exclude those links? (other than adding everything manually to the .gitignore)

I have to say that I have some require-dev modules which should not end up on the final server - so having those links there would be at least not so nice.

• philwinkle: Would this apply to modman, too?
• Vinai: With modman you generally would use git submodules for each extension and simply add the symlinks to the repository. No need to exclude them there, on the contrary, it wouldn't make sense in a modman deploy scenario mostly.
• ColinM: @philwinkle I recently started tracking the Magento root in a separate repo for security reasons (e.g. easily detect modified files), to track changes to index.php and Mage.php, and for easier Magento upgrades so definitely relevant for modman as well, IMO.

Answer 1

The best I came up with was running this after an composer install/update

$ find * -type l -not -exec grep -q "^{}$" .gitignore \; -print >> .gitignore

The command should be run in the git root directory. It adds all symlinks to the .gitignore file that aren't in there already.

• Alex: this generates path's like ./foo/bar .. I think we have to remove the first . - did it work for you like that?
• Vinai: Works fine for me with the leading ., yes. Else sed to the rescue: find . -type l -not -exec grep -q "{}" .gitignore \; -print | sed 's/^\.\///'
• Vinai: Actually, that breaks the grep... well, maybe there is a good way to clean the path up anyway...
• Vinai: Simple solution: find * .... Will update my answer.

Answer 2

This method only adds untracked symlinks so can be repeated without adding duplicate entries, symlinks that are in submodules or are otherwise already ignored, or intentionally tracked symlinks.

for f in $(git status --porcelain | grep '^??' | sed 's/^?? //'); do
 test -L "$f" && echo $f >> .gitignore;
 test -d "$f" && echo $f\* >> .gitignore;
done

Answer 3

Nowadays there is an option for this in the composer installer. Just set extra.auto-add-files-to-gitignore https://github.com/magento-hackathon/magento-composer-installer/blob/master/README.md#auto-add-files-to-gitignore

Answer 4

The combined solution of @ColinM and @Vinai that works for me

for f in $(git status --porcelain | grep '^??' | sed 's/^?? //'); do
 if test -L "$f"
 then
 test -L "$f" && echo $f >> .gitignore;
 elif test -d "$f"
 then
 find ${f%/} -type l -not -exec grep -q "^{}$" .gitignore \; -print >> .gitignore
 fi
done

• Alex: Did you notice that recent composer installers auto exclude the symlinks?
• martinBoy: Sure, but some of my projects is not under composer control. And solutions provided here are not only for composer projects but for ignoring symlinks altogether. Hope it will help somebody