Ignore a directory except for one subdirectory in Git

In a repository-root .gitignore, ignore the contents of the parent directory, then add an exception for the child you want to keep:

/main/*
!/main/subfolder2/

This ignores siblings such as main/subfolder1/ and main/subfolder3/, while allowing Git to discover files under main/subfolder2/. It assumes no other matching rule excludes those files.

Keep the parent directory accessible

This pair does not work:

/main/
!/main/subfolder2/

The first rule excludes the parent directory itself. Git does not descend into an excluded directory to find exceptions inside it. Using /main/* leaves main/ accessible while excluding its immediate contents. The leading slash anchors these examples to the directory containing this .gitignore, which is the repository root here.

For a deeper exception, reopen each parent and exclude its unwanted children:

/main/*
!/main/a/
/main/a/*
!/main/a/b/

This keeps files beneath main/a/b/, but excludes other children of main/ and main/a/. See the gitignore pattern rules.

Inspect the rule that matched

git check-ignore -v -- main/subfolder2/file.txt
git check-ignore -v -- main/subfolder1/file.txt
git status --short --ignored --untracked-files=all

Read the pattern in verbose output. A matching pattern that starts with ! is an inclusion exception: output from check-ignore -v does not always mean the file is ignored. No output can mean no rule matched; tracked files are also normally omitted by this diagnostic.

For an already tracked path, inspect the applicable ignore rules without consulting the index:

git check-ignore -v --no-index -- main/subfolder2/file.txt

This is a diagnostic option, not an instruction to stop tracking the file. The check-ignore reference explains its output format.

Handle files Git already tracks

Ignore rules govern untracked files. Adding a tracked file to .gitignore does not remove it from the index or stop future changes from appearing in diffs.

To deliberately stop tracking a file while keeping your local copy:

git rm --cached -- main/subfolder1/file.txt
git diff --cached

Review and commit the staged removal together with the ignore rule. This changes the repository for collaborators too; it is not a private local setting. For a whole directory, git rm -r --cached -- DIRECTORY applies the same operation recursively, so inspect the staged result carefully.

FAQ

Why does an exception still fail?

Check whether an ancestor is excluded, whether a later rule in the same file or a rule in a deeper .gitignore overrides your exception, and whether the directory contains a file. Git does not store empty directories. A placeholder file is sufficient; .gitkeep is only a naming convention, with no special Git behavior.

Can I ignore all log files except one?

Yes. Put the exception after the general rule:

*.log
!important.log

This allows files named important.log wherever these rules apply, provided their parent directories remain accessible. Use !/important.log to limit the exception to the .gitignore directory itself.