Should I commit my .gitignore file?

Yes. The .gitignore file should always be committed to your repository so all team members share the same ignore rules.

What is the difference between .gitignore and .gitignore_global?

.gitignore in your repo affects only that project. ~/.gitignore_global (configured with git config --global core.excludesfile) applies to all your repos. Put OS/editor patterns in the global file.

Why is node_modules/ ignored?

node_modules/ contains thousands of files that can be recreated by running npm install. Committing it wastes storage, slows clones, and causes merge conflicts. Always ignore it and document the install step in your README.

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Generated .gitignore

# Environment & secrets
.env
.env.local
.env.development.local
.env.test.local
.env.production.local
.env*.local
*.pem
*.key
*.p12
*.pfx

# Logs
logs/
*.log
npm-debug.log*

# OS generated
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# Node.js
node_modules/
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*
pnpm-debug.log*
.npm
.yarn-integrity
package-lock.json
yarn.lock
.pnp
.pnp.js

# macOS
.DS_Store
.AppleDouble
.LSOverride
Icon
._*
.DocumentRevisions-V100
.fseventsd
.Spotlight-V100
.TemporaryItems
.Trashes
.VolumeIcon.icns
.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
.AppleDB
.AppleDesktop
Network Trash Folder
Temporary Items
.apdisk

# VS Code
.vscode/*
!.vscode/settings.json
!.vscode/tasks.json
!.vscode/launch.json
!.vscode/extensions.json
!.vscode/*.code-snippets
.history/
*.vsix

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