what is .gitkeep file?

gitkeep.md

A .gitkeep file is a convention-based placeholder file used to force Git to track an otherwise empty directory.

Why it's needed

Git doesn't track empty directories - if you commit a folder with no files, it won't be included in your repository. The .gitkeep file solves this problem.

How it works

# Without .gitkeep - empty directory won't be tracked
mkdir logs
git add logs/  # This does nothing
git commit -m "Add logs directory"  # Directory won't be committed

# With .gitkeep - directory will be tracked
mkdir logs
touch logs/.gitkeep
git add logs/.gitkeep
git commit -m "Add logs directory"  # Now directory is tracked

Common use cases

• Preserving directory structure: Ensuring required folders exist
• Placeholder for future files: Logs, uploads, cache directories
• Configuration directories: Where files will be added later

Example directory structure

project/
├── src/
├── logs/
│   └── .gitkeep      # Keeps logs directory in repo
├── uploads/
│   └── .gitkeep      # Keeps uploads directory in repo
└── config/
    └── .gitkeep      # Keeps config directory in repo

Important notes

• Not a Git feature: .gitkeep is just a naming convention
• Alternative to .gitignore: Some use .gitignore for similar purpose
• File content: Typically empty, but can contain documentation
• Can be named anything: The convention is .gitkeep, but any file works

The .gitkeep file is essentially a harmless "hack" to work with Git's limitation of not tracking empty directories.