title: .gitignore is refusing to ignore a folder
body: <p>I have a folder in my local repo called var, which sits in the root directory. As with most var folders, it's full of junk, several of which files are too large for Git to push. </p>
  
  <p>I've included the following in my <code>.gitignore</code> in several attempts:  </p>
  
  <pre><code>var   
  var/  
  var/log/  
  var/log  
  var/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I ran:   </p>
  
  <pre><code>git rm -r --cached .   
  git update-index   
  git update-index --assumed-unchanged
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in various combinations with no joy! Any suggestions?</p>