Add Add A Range Of Filenames To gitignore as a Git TIL

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://crafty-builder-6996.ck.page/e169c61186).
 
-_1247 TILs and counting..._
+_1248 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -235,6 +235,7 @@ _1247 TILs and counting..._
 ### Git
 
 - [Accessing a Lost Commit](git/accessing-a-lost-commit.md)
+- [Add A Range Of Filename To gitignore](git/add-a-range-of-filenames-to-gitignore.md)
 - [Amend Author Of Previous Commit](git/amend-author-of-previous-commit.md)
 - [Auto-Squash Those Fixup Commits](git/auto-squash-those-fixup-commits.md)
 - [Caching Credentials](git/caching-credentials.md)

git/add-a-range-of-filenames-to-gitignore.md

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# Add A Range Of Filenames To gitignore
+
+The `.gitignore` file is a file where you can list files that should be ignored
+by git. This will prevent them from showing up in diffs, `git status`, etc.
+Most entries in the `.gitignore` file will plainly correspond to a single file.
+
+```
+# ignore env var files
+.env
+.env.local
+```
+
+Sometimes a project has a bunch of similarly named files. Autogenerated files
+are a prime example. For instance, a web app project may contain several
+sitemap files with incrementing suffix values (i.e. `sitemap-1.xml`,
+`sitemap-2.xml`, `sitemap-3.xml`, ...).
+
+I'd like to avoid having to type those all out in my `.gitignore` file. And I
+don't want to have to add new entries whenever another increment of the file is
+generated.
+
+I can handle all the current ones and future ones in a single line using some
+range pattern matching supported by the `.gitignore` file format.
+
+```
+# ignore sitemap files
+public/sitemap-[1-99].xml
+```
+
+This will ignore any sitemap files suffixed with 1 to 99. I don't really expect
+there to ever be more than handful of those files, so _99_ should definitely do
+the trick.
+
+[source](https://www.golinuxcloud.com/gitignore-examples/#5_Examples_of_pattern_matching_in_gitignore)