To ignore local changes to a specific file in Git while keeping the current changes, you can use the git update-index command. This allows you to mark the file as “assume unchanged,” which means Git will not track changes to it until you tell it otherwise.
For example, your repo has a .vscode/settings.json committed with some workspace settings or extension recommendations but your extensions saving things in that local file as well. And you want to not accidentally commit it, heres how you do that:
git update-index --assume-unchanged .vscode/settings.json
This command tells Git to ignore any changes made to .vscode/settings.json in the working directory. However, the current changes will remain in your working directory and will not be lost.
To revert this action
git update-index --no-assume-unchanged .vscode/settings.json
Note
This method only affects your local repository. Other collaborators will still see changes to the file unless they also run the same command.