Git-local uses a separate bare Git repository to track files that the main repository should not track. Especially useful for versioning configuration files. Most git commands are just passed through, and a few are special:

• git local init
• git local status
• git local add

Inside a git repository,

$ git status --short
?? src/config/local.yml

create an overlapping, but purely local repository,

$ git local init
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/me/project/.git-local/
$ git local status --short
## Tracked and modified files:

## Untracked files that upstream ignores or does not track:
src/config/local.yml

where you can add files, commit, and use any git command:

$ git local add src/config/local.yml
$ git local commit -m "local config"
[master (root-commit) 81aeaf5] 1
1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 other
$ git local log --format=oneline
81aeaf5dd5b86fce443cc06cbb6e237aa7432241 local config

The default behavior for the locally tracked files is to ignore them in the main repository. Here, the YAML file was added to the main .gitignore:

$ git status
?? .gitignore

$ git local status -v
## Tracked files:
src/config/local.yml
 
## Tracked and modified files:
nothing to commit (use -u to show untracked files)

## Untracked files that upstream ignores or does not track:
.gitignore

Initialize a local repository in .git-local, next to .git.

--no-gitignore : Do not create/update the .gitignore file to hide the local repository.

With no option, lists files locally commited, or ignored upstream, or untracked upstream. To set a list of patterns to ignore, modify .git-local/info/exclude.

--verbose -v : Display also the tracked and unchanged files.

The files tracked by the upstream repository will be ignored.

--no-gitignore : Do not add lines in the upstream .gitignore about the files tracked bu git-local.