.NET .gitignore template

launchSettings.json is what separates this template from its C# sibling, and it is not an obvious call. The file defines launch profiles: which URLs the development server binds to, which environment variables are set for each profile, whether the browser opens. It lives under Properties and it is genuinely useful to share, so that a new developer gets a working run configuration.

The argument for ignoring it is the environment variables block. It is a convenient place to put a connection string or an API key while developing, and once someone does that, the file is a secret. Teams that keep it tracked usually pair that with a rule that secrets go in the user secrets store instead, which lives outside the repository entirely.

bin and obj are the standard output directories, written with bracket character classes so the rules work regardless of which case the tooling produced. obj holds the restore graph and generated assembly attributes and embeds absolute paths, which makes a committed copy actively harmful rather than merely large.

The NuGet rules cover *.nupkg and *.snupkg, the package and symbol package produced when you pack a library, plus the older packages directory. Modern projects restore into a global cache in the user profile, so that directory often never appears.

The user specific rules are .vs, *.suo, *.user, *.userosscache, *.rsuser, *.userprefs and *.sln.docstates. These are all one developer's editor state: open documents, breakpoints, window layout, per project debug settings. Committing them means everyone inherits someone else's window arrangement and fights over it in every merge. None of them are read by the build, so nothing is lost by keeping every one of them out of the repository.