How can I ignore everything but *.cpp files

Question

So I have a file directory that contains many types of files, but I would like to ignore every file except a few and any *.cpp. Here is what I have in my .gitignore, but the *.cpp is not being committed.

# Ignore Everything
*

# But not .cpp
!*.cpp
!.gitignore
!README.md

Answer 1

You can "un-ignore" directories using !*/ so that it tries adding that directory. But since git has no tracking for directories it will still have to find files to add. Your ignore all * and don't ignore cpp !*.cpp will do the trick

Modify your .gitignore to be:

# Ignore Everything
*

# But not .cpp
!*.cpp
# Or directories
!*/
!.gitignore
!README.md

The basic idea is git tracks files not directories.