Special Version Control Files

The following is a list of VCS-specific files that one may find in the working directories of common version control systems. This list is useful for, say, knowing what files to ignore when traversing a project directory.

Did I leave anything out? Feel free to send a pull request.

VCS	File/Directory	Purpose	Documentation
Git	.git/	Repository data	gitrepository-layout(5)
	.gitattributes	Defines per-path attributes	gitattributes(5)
	.gitignore	Lists files to exclude from version control	gitignore(5)
	.gitmodules	Defines submodules	gitmodules(5)
	.mailmap	Maps names & e-mails to canonical values	gitmailmap(5)
Mercurial	.hg/	Repository data	wiki:FileFormats
	.hgignore	Lists files to exclude from version control	hgignore(5)
	.hgsigs	Contains changeset signatures from the GPG extension	—
	.hgtags	Defines tags	—
Darcs	_darcs/	Repository data	—
	.binaries	Lists files to treat as binary [1]	Manual
	.boring	Lists files to exclude from version control [1]	Manual
Bazaar	.bzr/	Repository data	—
	.bzrignore	Lists files to exclude from version control	bzr ignore
Subversion	.svn/ or _svn/ [2]	Local copy of repository data [3]
CVS	CVS/	Local copy of repository data (one per directory)	Manual
RCS	filename,v	Version history for filename	Manual
	RCS/	Conventional directory for storing *,v files	—

[1]	(1, 2) Darcs normally stores its binaries file and boring file inside the _darcs/ directory, but it is possible to use any file under version control in their place; the names listed here are the conventional names for such files.

[2]	For compatibility with ASP.NET, Subversion will use the name _svn instead of .svn if the SVN_ASP_DOT_NET_HACK environment variable is defined.

[3]	Prior to version 1.7, Subversion placed a .svn/_svn directory in every subdirectory of the working directory under version control.