git - .gitignore Doesn't Seem To Work

Question

My .gitignore:

.DS_Store
/.idea
/.idea_modules
/out
/project
/target
/*.iml
*/resolution-cache/*
*/streams/*
*/target/*

But nonetheless, the folders .idea, .idea_modules and target have appeared in a repo and are still there.

Your ideas?

Answer 1

Ignoring is only useful for files that are not currently being tracked by the repo. If those directories were added to the repo before being put in .gitignore, they will continue to be tracked.

Use git rm --cached <file> to stop tracking a file.

Of course you should make a commit with the removed files and push to the repo to see the changes in the remote repository