github - How to add folders except few using git add

Question

I am getting this error in VSCode stating "

This git repository has too many active changes, only a subset of git features will be enabled

"

I am probably getting this because of my eclipse .metadata folder and folders like .history and .settings.

I wanted to exclude these folders while adding the others in git repo so I tried this :

git add -- . :!.history :!.metadata :!.settings

and this too,

git add --all --:!.history :!.metadata :!.settings

but getting error

bash: !.history: event not found

How do I solve it, I have updated my git software but it doesn't seem to be fixing it.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66066331/how-to-add-folders-except-few-using-git-add

Answer 1

The error you are getting is not specific to git but specific to bash where the ! character is related to bash history, to achieve what you are trying to do, you can escape the ! with ,

So something like

git add --all --:!.history :!.metadata :!.settings

But a cleaner approach will be to use a .gitignore file and add entries for each of the above directories for that.

So your .gitignore would look something like the following -

# contents of .gitignore
.history
.metadata
.settings

This .gitignore file should be at the root of our repository.