title: git merge conflicts with our database file (multiple developers)
body: <p>A buddy and I are developing a Django app and are using git. </p>
  
  <p>As we work, we make fake accounts on our site, login, and upload content to the database, etc..for testing purposes. <strong>Every time we merge branches, we get merge conflicts in our database file</strong>. The database file is in the repository, and, since we're testing separately, the local copies of the file develop differently.</p>
  
  <p>How do I prevent the database file from being tracked, so we can each keep our local copies?</p>
  
  <p>With the following, we've been able to avoid using a local path:</p>
  
  <pre><code>## settings.py
  
  
  from os.path import dirname, join
  
  PROJECT_DIR = dirname(__file__)
  
  DATABASES = {
      'default': {
          'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
          'NAME': join(PROJECT_DIR, 'foo.db'),
          'USER': '',
          'PASSWORD': '',
          'HOST': '',
          'PORT': '',
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What would be ideal, is something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>## settings.py
  
  
  from os.path import dirname, join
  
  PROJECT_DIR = dirname(__file__)
  
  DATABASES = {
      'default': {
          'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
          'NAME': join('../../../', PROJECT_DIR, 'foo.db'), # this path is outside the repository (ie, 'Users/sgarza62/foo.db')
          'USER': '',
          'PASSWORD': '',
          'HOST': '',
          'PORT': '',
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>How can we keep our database files from being committed?</p>