You just wrote a cpp program that reads it config from a file named `conf.ini` As you don't want to bother adding all files manualy, you have decided to use `.gitignore` You need to create a `.gitignore` file that will: - ignore all files that end with suffix `.swp` (backup files) - ignore every files in the `out` directory except `conf.ini` In other words, once the `.gitignore` file written, the command `git add .` should only stage: - .gitignore - main.cpp - out/conf.ini