🤔 Situation
The repository is like this. The notes directory is empty. How can I keep the empty directory?
$ tree
.
├── Gemfile
├── Gemfile.lock
├── README.md
├── deleted.enex
├── notes # <- The empty directory
├── parse.rb
└── parse_to_notable.rb
1 directory, 6 files
👍 Solution
put an empty file at the directory. .gitkeep is popularly used.
$ touch notes/.gitkeep
$ ls -A notes/
.gitkeep
Top comments (5)
Any file will work, because any file will make the folder not empty: I believe it's better practice to add a
README.mdfile in the folder explaining the purpose of the folder.Otherwise future developers might find a folder sometimes with not an intuitive name and wonder what it's for: it might even no longer be used, but with not explanation of its purpose a developer would need to dig into the code to understand that.
I think
.keepworks too ;)Thank you, it works too!
It's probably worth noting that any file name would work. .gitkeep is just a popular choice for this placeholder file.
Thank you, my understanding was wrong. I've rewritten it.