how do I tell git not to remove the tags file

Question

When I run git clean -xfd, git deletes my tags file. I have the tag file listed in gitignore, but how do I tell git not to remove the tags file.

Answer 1

you are using option x in git clean command. In the manual, the option x tells:

-x Don’t use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore rules given with -e options. This allows removing all untracked files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in conjunction with git reset) to create a pristine working directory to test a clean build.

So, if you don't want to delete files in .gitignore, just don't use the option x, only the options f and d: git clean -fd