A widely used Git feature is to use local .gitignore files which list which names and patterns of files and directories will be ignored within the Git repository.

There is also the possibility to create a system-wide gitignore file which lists patterns that should always be ignored, in all of the user’s Git repositories.

You can point to the file in your Git config via git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global.

The following ~/.gitignore_global file will cause .java-version files to always be ignored within your Git setup:

Also have a look at the GitHub documentation.