From 5e6b269c412cd564c3ea33c74453192efc9aa044 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ahamed_Meyan <116168645+Ahamed1846@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2025 15:40:20 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] static: Preserve .gitignore and .gitattributes in
 --cleanDestinationDir

 Fixes #14097
---
 commands/hugobuilder.go | 10 +++++++++-
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/commands/hugobuilder.go b/commands/hugobuilder.go
index ecca6ecc7..bc8eeb588 100644
--- a/commands/hugobuilder.go
+++ b/commands/hugobuilder.go
@@ -464,7 +464,15 @@ func (c *hugoBuilder) copyStaticTo(sourceFs *filesystems.SourceFilesystem) (uint
 		infol.Logf("removing all files from destination that don't exist in static dirs")
 
 		syncer.DeleteFilter = func(f fsync.FileInfo) bool {
-			return f.IsDir() && strings.HasPrefix(f.Name(), ".")
+			name := f.Name()
+
+			// Keep .gitignore and .gitattributes anywhere
+			if name == ".gitignore" || name == ".gitattributes" {
+				return true
+			}
+
+			// Keep Hugo's original dot-directory behavior
+			return f.IsDir() && strings.HasPrefix(name, ".")
 		}
 	}
 	start := time.Now()
-- 
2.39.5