.gitignore file is not in the generated directory

[eatenupme]

Product

dotnet CLI (dotnet new)

Describe The Bug

When I create a custom project template, I need to add a .gitignore template to it. I have written the .gitignore file, but it does not appear in the generated files. I did not find any description of the .gitignore rules in the documentation.

To Reproduce

Steps:

1. vi template.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <PackageType>Template</PackageType>
        <PackageVersion>0.0.0</PackageVersion>
        <PackageId>xxx.Templates</PackageId>
        <Title>xxx</Title>
        <Authors>xxxx</Authors>
        <Description>xxxx</Description>
        <PackageTags>dotnet-new;templates;contoso</PackageTags>
        <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>

        <IncludeContentInPack>true</IncludeContentInPack>
        <IncludeBuildOutput>false</IncludeBuildOutput>
        <ContentTargetFolders>content</ContentTargetFolders>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <ItemGroup>
        <Content Include="templates\**\*" Exclude="templates\**\bin\**;templates\**\obj\**" />
        <Compile Remove="**\*" />
    </ItemGroup>
</Project>

2. vi templates/.template.config/template.json

{
    "$schema": "http://json.schemastore.org/template",
    "author": "xxx",
    "classifications": [
        "xxx"
    ],
    "tags": {
        "language": "C#",
        "type": "project"
    },
    "preferNameDirectory": true,
    "identity": "xxx",
    "name": "xxx",
    "shortName": "xxxx"
}

3. vi templates/.gitignore

##
## Visual Studio Code
##
.vscode/*

4. dotnet pack & dotnet new install .
5. dotnet new xxx

dotnet Info

output

.NET SDK: Version: 8.0.105 Commit: eae90abaaf Workload version: 8.0.100-manifests.796a77f8

Runtime Environment:
OS Name: ubuntu
OS Version: 22.04
OS Platform: Linux
RID: ubuntu.22.04-x64
Base Path: /usr/lib/dotnet/sdk/8.0.105/

.NET workloads installed:
Workload version: 8.0.100-manifests.796a77f8
There are no installed workloads to display.

Host:
Version: 8.0.5
Architecture: x64
Commit: 087e15321b

.NET SDKs installed:
8.0.105 [/usr/lib/dotnet/sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 8.0.5 [/usr/lib/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.5 [/usr/lib/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

Other architectures found:
None

Environment variables:
Not set

global.json file:
Not found

Learn more:
https://aka.ms/dotnet/info

Download .NET:
https://aka.ms/dotnet/download

Visual Studio Version

No response

Additional context

No response

[sayedihashimi]

Files that start with a . are excluded by default when you Pack the project. You can add the property NoDefaultExcludes to prevent that https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/reference/cli-reference/cli-ref-pack#options.

[eatenupme]

Because I'm using the .NET CLI instead of NuGet, I haven't found an option to disable file exclusion.
I used the renamefile to solve this issue, and it works for me.