无前缀点的gitignore文件的作用是什么？为何VSCode会识别它？

Great question—let's break this down clearly for you:

1. Git only recognizes .gitignore by default #

Git has strict default rules for which ignore files it reads automatically. The .gitignore (with the leading dot) is the standard, locally-scoped ignore file Git looks for in your repository root. That's why adding foo.fooey to this file immediately made Git stop showing the file as untracked.

The file named gitignore (no leading dot), however, is not a default file Git checks for ignore rules. This is exactly why moving the foo.fooey entry there didn't change Git's behavior—it completely ignores this file unless you explicitly configure it to use it (more on that later).

2. What's the purpose of the gitignore file (no dot)? #

This file is almost always used as a template or reference file for ignore rules. Many teams or projects keep a gitignore file around that contains base ignore rules tailored to the project type (like Node.js, Python, or Java), then copy its contents into .gitignore when setting up the repository. It's a way to store shared, standardized ignore configurations without having them active in Git by default.

3. Why does VSCode show a $ icon for it? #

VSCode's file icon themes (including the default one and popular options like Material Icon Theme) have built-in associations for common file names. The gitignore file is recognized as a Git ignore template, so it gets assigned a special dollar-sign ($) icon to distinguish it from the active, Git-readable .gitignore file.

Bonus: How to make Git use the gitignore file if needed #

If you really wanted Git to respect the rules in the gitignore file, you could run this command to tell Git to use it as an additional excludes file:

git config core.excludesfile ./gitignore

That said, this isn't standard practice—using .gitignore is always the recommended approach for local repository ignore rules.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Alphonso77