title: Git ignore changes to committed file
body: <p>I have a config file in my repo that shouldn't get changes committed to it. </p>
  
  <p>The problem is that, when I make changes to the file they are picked up by git status. I've tried various ways to ignore changes to it.</p>
  
  <p>How can it be automatically ignored when I clone the repo, so that any changes I make to the file shouldn't be picked up by git?</p>
  
  <p>Solutions I've tried:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Adding the file to <code>.gitignore</code>. Doesn't seem to work. Is this because the file is already on the index?</p></li>
  <li><p>Using <code>git update-index --assume-unchanged path/to/file</code>. Seemed to work some what but is only local to my cloned repo. Others who clone need to apply the same command.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I've tried looking at other answers to this but other solutions don't seem to work properly. I feel like this should be quite simple, so any guidance would be helpful!</p>