Ignore Resources Not Under Version Control

Some resources inside your working copy do not need to be subject to version control. These resources can be files created by the compiler, *.obj, *.class, *.lst, or output folders used to store temporary files. Whenever you commit changes, Apache Subversion™ shows your modified files in the commit dialog box, but the unversioned files are also listed. Since the unversioned files are committed unless otherwise specified, it is difficult to see exactly what you are committing.

The best way to avoid these problems is to add the derived files to the Subversion ignore list. That way they are never displayed in the commit dialog box and only genuine unversioned files that must be committed are displayed.

You can choose to ignore a resource by using the Add to svn:ignore action in the contextual menu of the Working Copy view.

In the Add to svn:ignore dialog box, you can specify the resource to be ignored by name or by a custom pattern. The custom pattern can contain the following wildcard characters:

• * - Matches any string of characters of any size, including the empty string.
• ? - Matches any single character.

For example, you can choose to ignore all text documents by using the pattern: *.txt.

The action Add to svn:ignore adds a predefined Subversion property called svn:ignore to the parent directory of the specified resource. In this property, there are specified all the child resources of that directory that must be ignored. The result is visible in the Working Copy view. The ignored resources are represented with gray icons.