I have a codeigniter framework thats using github. Within this application I have several files that i will want to have in the repo but not track any changes on..

Example is: i deploy a new installation of this framework to a new client, i want the following files to be downloaded (they have default values 'CHANGEME') and i just have to make changes specific to this client IE(database credentials, email address info, custom css styling).

// the production config files i want the files but they need to be updated to specific client needs
application/config/production/config.php
application/config/production/database.php
application/config/production/tank_auth.php
// index page, defines the environment (production|development)
/index.php
// all of the css/js cache (keep the folder but not the contents)
/assets/cache/*
// production user based styling (color, fonts etc) needs to be updated specific to client needs
/assets/frontend/css/user/frontend-user.css

currently if i run git clone [email protected]:user123/myRepo.git httpdocs and then i edit the files above, all is great.. until i release a hotfix or patch and run git pull. All of my changes are then overwritten.