Vue .gitignore template

dist is the bundler output: the hashed JavaScript and CSS files plus the generated index page. It is derived entirely from tracked sources and it changes wholesale on any dependency bump, so it is the classic example of output that makes a repository history unreadable if committed.

The environment rules are .env.local and .env.*.local, which together cover the local override family for any mode name the project defines. The pattern is the same two tier convention used elsewhere in the frontend world: files without the .local suffix are shared and committed, files with it are yours alone.

*.local is a broader rule that catches any file ending in that suffix, not just environment files. It is worth being aware of, because a data fixture or a configuration file you name something.local will be silently ignored by a rule that looks like it only concerns environment variables.

This template is one of the few that mixes in rules from other categories. .DS_Store covers the metadata file the macOS file manager writes, and *.suo, *.ntvs*, *.njsproj and *.sln cover Visual Studio project files that appear when the project is opened in that editor. *.sw? catches editor swap files.

That mixing is convenient but it is also why you should still add an operating system template. The macOS case is covered here, but Windows thumbnail caches and Linux trash directories are not, and a mixed team will produce both. It is also worth noticing what is absent: node_modules is ignored, and the lockfile beside it is not, which is exactly the right way round for a project that wants reproducible installs.