Different IDEs create different project files. Now the question is:

Which project files should I check into my VCS and which not?

This is what this article is about.

Just a few notes before we start:

• Expressions like bin/ (note the trailing slash) represent directories

• The names of directories holding the compiled sources can be renamed in most IDEs. I’ll list only the default directories.

Visual Studio 2010 ∞

Files to add:

• *.sln
• *.vcxproj, *.csproj
• *.vcxproj.filters (C/C++ projects)

• Properties/ (.NET projects)

Files to ignore:

• *.user (including *.vcxproj.user)
• *.sdf
• *.opensdf
• ipch/
• Debug/ and Release/

• bin/ and obj/ (.NET projects)

Eclipse ∞

Files to add:

• .project
• .classpath
• .settings/

• *.launch (shared launch configurations)

Files to ignore:

• bin/ (default output directory), or *.class

IntelliJ, PyCharm, PhpStorm, WebStorm ∞

Files to add:

• .idea/ (except for workspace.xml)

Files to ignore:

• .idea/workspace.xml

(Source)

Combined .hgignore file ∞

This section contains the contents for a .hgignore file that ignores all of the files mentioned above.

syntax: glob

# Visual Studio
*.user
*.sdf
*.opensdf
**/ipch/
**/Debug/
**/Release/
**/bin/
**/obj/

# Eclipse
**/bin/
*.class

# JetBrains IDEs
**/.idea/workspace.xml