title: Git ignore doesn't ignore the specified folders/files
body: <p>I want my .gitignore to ignore certain folders and files so I came up with the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>*.class
  
  # usual java ignores
  bin/
  .metadata
  
  # Maven
  */target/*
  target/*
  /target/
  */deploy/*
  deploy/*
  
  # src-gen folder is populated by the command of protobuf, these files should not be pushed
  src-gen/*
  
  # eclipse generated stuff
  dependency-reduced-pom.xml
  
  # we shouldn't have .jar files in our repository, 
  # apart from these 5 jars which are vital for our build process
  *.jar
  !/projectName/bundle/**/*.jar
  
  # For Unix editors 
  # sometimes make file copies ending
  # with ~
  # To ignore them use:
  *~
  
  # For Mac
  .DS_Store
  ._*
  
  # For markdown read me files
  .README.md.html
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, after a <code>git status</code> I cannot see anything to be deleted as output. Note that this is a submodule, if that matters at all. And I want this <code>.gitignore</code> to ignore everything without specifying any folder name, since I don't want any hardcoding.</p>
  
  <p>Here is the folder structure I have:</p>
  
  <pre><code>+ parentRepo
    + thisRepo
      + .gitignore
      + projectName
        + src-gen
        + target
        + deploy
        + dependency-reduced-pom.xml
        + bundle
          + system
            + 1.jar
            + 2.jar
            + 3.jar
            + 4.jar
            + 5.jar
  </code></pre>