diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c0ebd26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+/testruns/
+reproducible_images/
+
+# caches
+/tests/refs/
+/tests/refs_extracted/
diff --git a/tarball_multi_releases.bash b/tarball_multi_releases.bash
index 6f11a10..d3b6a84 100755
--- a/tarball_multi_releases.bash
+++ b/tarball_multi_releases.bash
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ main()
       local _pwd; _pwd=$(pwd)
       cd "${archive_name:?}"
       rm tarball*sh
-      rm -f README-before-1.7.md
+      rm -f README-before-1.7.md .gitignore
       set -x
       mv install.sh README* LICENCE* Notice* "${_pwd}"/_selected_versions/
     )