I think this depends on how you interpret it. All the docs[0] say are: > Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to other repositories via

I think this depends on how you interpret it. All the docs[0] say are: > Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want to ignore) should go into a .gitignore file. and > Patterns which are specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside the repository but are specific to one user’s workflow) should go into the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file. To me it seems obvious that all developers would want to ignore .DS_Store even if only some of them would generate it. And certainly you want it distributed to other mac users when they clone. Further, it's certainly not the case that .DS_Store is specific to just one user's workflow. On all three cases therefore gitignore would be reasonably appropriate. [0]: https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore