gitignorefile

1.1.2 verified Fri May 01 auth: no python

A spec-compliant `.gitignore` parser for Python (version 1.1.2). It reads `.gitignore` files and matches file paths against the rules, supporting all features of the Git gitignore specification. The library is actively maintained.

pip install gitignorefile

Common errors

error AttributeError: module 'gitignorefile' has no attribute 'read_gitignore' ↓

cause Missing import or outdated library version.

fix

Install/upgrade: pip install --upgrade gitignorefile, and import correctly: from gitignorefile import read_gitignore

error TypeError: __init__() takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given ↓

cause Passing raw string to GitignoreFile constructor instead of list of rules.

fix

Use parsed result: rules = read_gitignore('.gitignore'); checker = GitignoreFile(rules)

Warnings

gotcha The `match` method expects paths relative to the .gitignore file location, not absolute paths. ↓

fix Ensure you pass paths relative to the directory containing the .gitignore file.

gotcha The library only supports regular files, not directories. Calling `match` on a directory path may give unexpected results. ↓

fix Use the `is_ignored_dir` property or check for directory separately.

deprecated The `read_gitignore` function returns a list, but older documentation suggested it returns a different format. ↓

fix Update to version 1.0+; the return type is now a list of rules.

breaking Version 1.0 changed the API from `GitignoreFile(rules)` to accept a list of rule objects, not raw strings. ↓

fix Always pass the output of `read_gitignore` to the constructor.

Imports

read_gitignore

wrong

import gitignorefile; gitignorefile.read_gitignore

correct

from gitignorefile import read_gitignore

The correct import is function-level, not module-level.

GitignoreFile
```
from gitignorefile import GitignoreFile
```
The class is used to match files against rules.

Quickstart

Basic usage: read .gitignore file and check if a path is ignored.

import os
from gitignorefile import read_gitignore, GitignoreFile

ignores = read_gitignore('.gitignore')
checker = GitignoreFile(ignores)
print(checker.match('some_file.py'))  # True/False