📄 .ignore File Usage in Code Editors

📝 Overview

When working on a project, you can use an .ignore file to tell editors like Vim, Neovim, or Helix to exclude specific files and directories from search results (e.g., grep) and file listings. The syntax is similar to a .gitignore file.

📁 Example .ignore File

node_modules/
style.css
main.py
*.md

🔍 What This Does:

    node_modules/ → Excludes the entire node_modules directory
    style.css → Excludes the specific CSS file
    main.py → Excludes the specific Python file
    *.md → Excludes all Markdown files

🧠 Notes

Useful for decluttering searches and improving performance. Especially helpful in large projects with dependencies or build artifacts. Supported in modern editors like Helix, and can be configured in Vim/Neovim using plugins or custom grep settings.