When to use .gitignore and .git/info/exclude

Both .gitignore and .git/info/exclude are used to ignore files from staging in git.

.gitignore

• If a file should be ignored in all clones of the repository, you would use .gitignore
• This file needs to be committed and the files mentioned would be ignored in all the clones.

.git/info/exclude

• If for some reason you need to locally ignore certain files in a single clone, you would use .git/info/exclude
• This file acts as a .gitignore for your own local git folder and is not committed or shared with anyone else.

References

• Git Docs