title: git: ignoring a file which *is* version controlled
body: <p>A <code>.gitignore</code> file allows to ignore files from version controlling them at all.</p>
  
  <p>We have a different situation: we want to place in the repository some configuration files, that need to be changed on per-machine basis (db access info for instance).</p>
  
  <p>We do want to distribute them, as placeholders, so we include them into the repository.
  However, later we want any changes to them to be ignored, for all developers.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to do it?</p>
  
  <p><em>Note:</em></p>
  
  <p>The question <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4633681/git-ignoring-version-controlled-files">Git: Ignoring Version-Controlled Files</a> is actually the same. However, none of the answers answered the question, including the accepted one.</p>
  
  <p><em>Edit:</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Is there a way to do  --assume-unchanged to a pattern rather than a single file?</li>
  <li>Is there a way to propagate this command to the repositories of other developers? </li>
  </ul>