Exceptions in .gitignore

Use ! to negate the pattern:

*.dll
!myfile.dll

You can also ignore folders like

!src/main/resources/archetype-resources/**/*

you can also ignore nested folder with patterns like

!**/src/test/resources/**/*

For quick creation of .gitignore file try gitignore.io

If you want to ignore whole folder, except some specific files, then write:

MyFolder/*
!MyFolder/CoolFile.txt

This won't work:

MyFolder/
!MyFolder/CoolFile.txt