diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..807cabd20a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+/bin/
+/lib/
+/include/
+/*.app
+/*.exe
diff --git a/collects/.gitignore b/collects/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d055b39ba6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collects/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+compiled/
+/info-domain/
diff --git a/collects/plot/src/.gitignore b/collects/plot/src/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..82520ca123
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collects/plot/src/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/tmp/
diff --git a/collects/tests/mred/.gitignore b/collects/tests/mred/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ee4173f0a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collects/tests/mred/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/tmp*
diff --git a/collects/tests/mzscheme/.gitignore b/collects/tests/mzscheme/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e5fcf613de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collects/tests/mzscheme/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+/foreign-test.so
+/tmp?-filelib
+/tmp?
+/NormalizationTest.txt
diff --git a/collects/tests/mzscheme/benchmarks/common/.gitignore b/collects/tests/mzscheme/benchmarks/common/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6f00e45b57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collects/tests/mzscheme/benchmarks/common/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/dynamic-input.txt
diff --git a/collects/tests/mzscheme/benchmarks/rx/.gitignore b/collects/tests/mzscheme/benchmarks/rx/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9232ffd959
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collects/tests/mzscheme/benchmarks/rx/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+/test.py
+/test.pl
diff --git a/collects/tests/web-server/.gitignore b/collects/tests/web-server/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..086e51e574
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collects/tests/web-server/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# All key files, in any subdirectories, to avoid bad accidents
+*pem
diff --git a/doc/.gitignore b/doc/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ca50d37af6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# most things here are generated, so ignore everything, and explicitly
+# add things that need to be added -- use `git add -f' in such cases.
+*
diff --git a/src/.gitignore b/src/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..796b96d1c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/build