Unreal Engine .gitignore Template Explained

UnrealEngine.gitignore is a template for Unreal Engine C++ projects. It excludes the large folders the engine creates for compilation, cooking and shader caches, and the IDE project files that the editor can regenerate.

The five lines dealing with the Build/ folder are a good illustration of gitignore precedence. They exclude all the folder's contents but restore the per-platform subfolders, and inside them re-include only the icon and PakBlacklist files.

Rules explained

Pattern	What it ignores and why
Binaries/*Intermediate/*Saved/*DerivedDataCache/*	Engine-generated foldersCompiled modules, intermediate build files, logs, autosaves and config caches, and derived shader and asset data. The editor or the build recreates all of them.
Plugins/**/Binaries/*Plugins/**/Intermediate/*	Plugin build outputProject plugins also create their own Binaries and Intermediate folders. ** matches plugins at any depth.
Build/*!Build/*/Build/*/**!Build/*/PakBlacklist*.txt!Build/**/*.ico	Build folder exception structureBuild/* excludes the contents and !Build/*/ restores the subdirectories. The directories must stay alive so that everything can be excluded again with Build/*/** and then only the PakBlacklist and icon files re-included with !. This works around the rule that files cannot be restored once their parent directory is excluded.
*.sln*.suo*.xcodeproj*.xcworkspace.vs/.vsconfig	Generated IDE projectsVisual Studio and Xcode files that can be regenerated at any time from the .uproject with 'Generate Project Files'.
*.obj*.o*.pch*.dll*.lib*.exe*.app*.ipa	Compilation outputC++ compile and link results and packaging output.
*_BuiltData.uasset	Built lighting dataPer-map data produced by building lighting. It is large, changes often and can be rebuilt.
SourceArt/**/*.pngSourceArt/**/*.tga	Source artA rule to keep the folder of original, pre-import textures out of the repository. To version the originals, remove it and use Git LFS.

Practical notes

• Tracking binary assets such as .uasset and .umap with Git LFS is practically mandatory.
• Config/, Content/, Source/ and .uproject should be committed. Settings in Saved/Config are personal, so it is correct that they are excluded.
• Before changing the Build/ structure, put a path such as Build/Windows/Application.ico into the pattern tester and check the result.

Original template

# Visual Studio 2015 user specific files.vs/# Compiled Object files*.slo*.lo*.o*.obj# Precompiled Headers*.gch*.pch# Compiled Dynamic libraries*.so*.dylib*.dll# Fortran module files*.mod# Compiled Static libraries*.lai*.la*.a*.lib# Executables*.exe*.out*.app*.ipa# These project files can be generated by the engine*.xcodeproj*.xcworkspace*.sln*.suo*.opensdf*.sdf*.VC.db*.VC.opendb.vsconfig# Precompiled AssetsSourceArt/**/*.pngSourceArt/**/*.tga# Binary FilesBinaries/*Plugins/**/Binaries/*# BuildsBuild/*# Whitelist PakBlacklist-<BuildConfiguration>.txt files!Build/*/Build/*/**!Build/*/PakBlacklist*.txt# Don't ignore icon files in Build!Build/**/*.ico# Built data for maps*_BuiltData.uasset# Configuration files generated by the EditorSaved/*# Compiled source files for the engine to useIntermediate/*Plugins/**/Intermediate/*# Cache files for the editor to useDerivedDataCache/*

Often used together

More template explanations