How to create a .gitignore file

If you're using Windows it will not let you create a file without a filename in Windows Explorer. It will give you the error "You must type a file name" if you try to rename a text file as .gitignore

To get around this I used the following steps

1. Create the text file gitignore.txt
2. Open it in a text editor and add your rules, then save and close
3. Hold SHIFT, right click the folder you're in, then select Open command window here
4. Then rename the file in the command line, with ren gitignore.txt .gitignore

Alternatively @HenningCash suggests in the comments

You can get around this Windows Explorer error by appending a dot to the filename without extension: .gitignore. will be automatically changed to .gitignore

As simple as things can (sometimes) be: Just add the following into your preferred command line interface (GNU Bash, Git Bash, etc.)

touch .gitignore

As @Wardy pointed out in the comments, touch works on Windows as well as long as you provide the full path. This might also explain why it does not work for some users on Windows: The touch command seems to not be in the $PATH on some Windows versions per default.

C:\> "c:\program files (x86)\git\bin\touch.exe" .gitignore

The easiest way to create the .gitignore file in Windows Explorer is to create a new file named .gitignore..This will skip the validation of having a file extension, since is actually has an empty file extension.