Where is it documented how a gitignore file affects the behaviour of NX?

[airtonix]

I just wasted four hours trying to work this out, because yet again. something critical was glossed over.

⚠️ Preface

My existing repo had a .gitignore with the following:

*
!.gitignore

!.vscode/
!.vscode/*
!.github/
!.github/*
!.github/**/*
!docker-compose*
!Taskfile.yml
!.editorconfig
!.releaserc.json
!yarn.lock
!package.json

!tools/
!tools/**
!frontend/
!frontend/**

Suggestions

1. The .gitignore behaviour should be very obviously mentioned in all the migration tutorials
2. The .nxignore page needs to say more than .nxignore is the same format as .gitignore... probably even have an equivilant page called .gitignore

1. Ran through the getting started:

• i want to add it to an existing repo, so i ran nx nx@latest init ✅
• 🛑 first problem: something about nx failed because i didn't have @nx/js installs. so i add that.
• I want to manage aspects of nextjs apps, so I added @nx/next ✅
• I wanted deps to only be described at the root of the repo, so I moved them to the root package.json
• I generate a empty nextjs app with yarn nx g @nx/next:app web ✅
• I move all my old source files into this new apps src directory.

1️⃣ ❗ First and main problem

yarn nx graph doesn't reveal the apps/web project despite it having a project.json.

2. try to work out what's broken

⚠️ Thoughts

at this point I'm still not aware that .gitignore is affecting how nx works.

• generate a new blank nx monorepo
  • this one behaves as expected.
• start copying project.json, nx.json over to the first monorepo... maybe nx init is broken and npx create-nx-workspace@latest is not. I dont know and i'm not going to spend the rest of my weekend examining source code of nx.dev to work that out.
• app is still ignored.... ❗ ❗ ❗

3. Start reading nx docs website in detail

⚠️ Thoughts

at this point I'm still not aware that .gitignore is affecting how nx works.

• search for project.json ? did i miss something? no. everything looks normal
• search github issues for project ignored or project not found. there's one or two, but in the end not able to help my scenario.

4. start trying random things

• start comparing files between my monorepo and the blank working one
• come across the .gitignore. think, maybe this is something? nah surely not.
• comment out the above.... 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯 it works. wtf.
• go back to searching the nx docs website for any mention of this... find nothing specifically mentioning that .gitignore has this much importance on the dep graph.
• come here to github discussions to rant and complain.

[shprota]

I think, nx should not ignore the projects in .gitignore. There are use cases when a developer wants to have a local playground project within the monorepo without the risk of accidentally committing it. .nxignore should be the only source for ignoring any projects.