Add gitignore blog post

site/blog/gitignore.md

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+---
+title: .gitignore is inherently Sisyphean
+description: And how to roll the rock over the edge.
+
+color: "#A5804C"
+thumbnail: /assets/sisyphus-ds-store.webp
+
+date: 2024-09-30
+
+tags:
+- vcs
+---
+
+You just started a new project. You ran `cargo init`,
+`poetry init` and `go mod init`.
+
+Those commands created the necessary files to work, it
+also added the following lines to your .gitignore:
+
+```
+target
+__pycache__
+bin
+```
+
+All great. You continue implementing features, and when
+the time comes, you publish your project to your Git
+hosting platform of choice.
+
+People start to get interested in your project. One even
+decides that he's going to implement a new feature!
+Literally free work done for you!
+
+Alright. That person uses his code editor and tools bundled
+with his operating system to implement a very cool
+new feature. He then submits the merge request.
+
+You start reviewing the code and notice a file quite
+out of place: `.DS_Store`. You ask the person what
+it is, he says he has no clue.
+
+![Hundreds of thousands of merge requests on GitHub trying
+to gitignore .DS_Store](/assets/github-ds-store-mr-list.webp)
+
+Whatever. You just delete the file from the branch and
+add the file's name to the repositories gitignore:
+
+```
+target
+__pycache__
+bin
+.DS_Store
+```
+
+
+Nice. Now the code is on master, and your repository
+only contains relevant information.
+
+Then, someone using an IDE created using web technologies
+submits another merge request. You look at it, and
+see that there is a whole directory that is irrelevant.
+You tell that person to delete the directory from the
+branch and add it to the gitignore. The gitignore lives on:
+
+```
+target
+__pycache__
+bin
+.DS_Store
+.vscode
+```
+
+Then, someone that uses IntelliJ IDEA commits five hundred
+XML files and the `.idea` directory. You repeat this process:
+
+```
+target
+__pycache__
+bin
+.DS_Store
+.vscode
+.idea
+```
+
+Years pass. Now your gitignore is hundreds of lines long,
+yet people keep accidentally committing in test scripts,
+foo, a, qux, data.tar.gz, start.sh, bin-release,
+cat, asd, fgsgskfh.
+
+Hell. You feel like a mythic god undergoing punishment
+for cheating death and deceiving the underworld.
+
+![Sisyphus pushing up a boulder that has .DS_Store written
+on it](/assets/sisyphus-ds-store.webp)
+
+How do you escape this endless loop of ignoring files
+that sneak in? Maybe by educating every single merge
+request author? Nope, that definitely won't work, there
+should be a way to automatically handle this with tooling,
+rather than subjective human communication.
+
+Luckily, you realize that you can turn the blacklist
+of files (the gitignore) to a whitelist, by just
+ignoring everything and manually un-ignoring desired
+files. You change your gitignore to this:
+
+```
+*
+
+!.gitignore
+
+!src/*.rs
+!Cargo.{toml,lock}
+
+!pysrc/*.py
+!pyproject.toml
+!poetry.lock
+
+!cmd/*.go
+!main.go
+!go.{mod,sum}
+
+!docs/*.md
+```
+
+Now, nobody can accidentally commit undesired files,
+as git automatically ignores them all and only
+allows the files that are explicitly whitelisted.
+It's also future proof, future proof until an IDE
+decides to use the `src/ide.rs` file as a convenient
+way of storing project specific configuration.
+And hopefully that future never comes.
+
+You feel relieved.