When you're looking to quickly create an appropriate .gitignore file for a new repository, you can save yourself some time, and possibly aggravation, by using gitignore.io.

Available as either a website with a very simple interface (and completion), or as a simple API-based service documentation for the API and how to call it from the command line is available from the site.

Source code is available on GitHub, and the license is a nice MIT license.

I've generally found the information to be pretty exhaustive, although occasionally you can run into policy decisions, so I find it useful to grab a copy and then review it. Remember, if you miss a file that you want to have saved, it may just be left out of your repository.

One additional note: if you like the default for a set of items you generated from the web site, the top of the generated file contains the API URL to pull it in the future.

All told, a really useful service, thanks to those who created and have contributed to this!