[Feature Request]: Automatically Generate .gitignore for ESP-IDF Projects (VSC-1576)

[carun]

Description

The ESP-IDF VS Code extension currently does not generate a .gitignore file when creating a new project. This can lead to accidental inclusion of unnecessary files (e.g., build artifacts, temporary files, or tool-specific configurations) in version control, especially for new users who might not be aware of what should or shouldn't be committed.

Suggested Improvement

Automatically create a .gitignore file as part of the project initialization process. The .gitignore file should include common exclusions for ESP-IDF projects, such as:

• build/
• .vscode/
• .clangd/
• .ccls-cache/
• sdkconfig (optional: sdkconfig.defaults might be kept)
• *.log, *.o
• Other temporary or build-related files.

Benefits

• Reduces the risk of committing unnecessary files to repositories.
• Improves the developer experience, especially for those new to ESP-IDF and Git.
• Ensures consistency across projects.

Sample .gitignore

# Build directories
/build/
**/build/

# ESP-IDF dependencies
/components/.idf/
**/components/.idf/
managed_components

# Project configuration
sdkconfig
sdkconfig.old

# CMake files
CMakeCache.txt
CMakeFiles/
Makefile
*.cmake

# Python environment files
*.pyc
*.pyo
*.pyd
__pycache__

# ESP32 toolchain files
.espressif/

# IDE specific files (e.g., Visual Studio Code, Eclipse)
.vscode/
.idea/
*.user
*.workspace
*.suo
*.sln

# ESP32 flash files
*.bin
*.elf
*.map

# Generated documentation
/docs/

# ESP-IDF logs
*.log

[SinglWolf]

Can also add the managed_components directory.
.DS_Store for Mac OS and .directory for Linux.
Not sure about the sdkconfig.old exception. Sometimes this file is needed for comparison with the current sdkconfig.
Also cannot be ruled out .vscode. For example, I have the VS Code user settings for the project stored there.