From Chef 0.10, a ‘chefignore’ file is USED to ignore UNWANTED TEMPORARY files like swap files, version control files, build data files, etc while uploading to the Chef server. This file is could be available at any of the subfolders of your cookbook repository. This file helps us to stop uploading unwanted files or confidential files to Chef Server.

For eg: while using Vim editor, it leaves behind swap files. These are of no use in reusing the uploaded cookbooks. These will get uploaded into the Chef Server unless specified in the chefignore file. The following entry in the chefignore file stops all swap files created by Vim editor being uploaded. This helps us to stop accidentally uploading these swap files which is not related to the cookbook and not required for the CORRECT functioning of the cookbook.

Chefignore file can use *,** and? wildcards to specify the ignore patterns in chefignore file. The pattern matching in the file is concerning

• root of the cookbook
• Relative directory NAMES