lets say I add one file to .gitignore and still commit it with -f (forced). Does someone else get it automatically when they do checkout/clone on their pc? Or since the file is ignored, its not downloaded? Thanks
The file .gitignore, I think it is only used for change tracking. Once you pushed a file successfully to a remote branch, others can literally checkout/clone it.
But when they modify that file on their PCs, any changes of that file will not be detected by git. They must commit with -f to push the changes anyway.
Actually, I guess you can try your scenario on your PC with ease.