Which statement best describes the purpose of a .forceignore file?

Which statement best describes the purpose of a .forceignore file?

• A. Excludes files from version control only
• B. Specifies deployment targets
• C. Excludes files from the mdapi:convert process
• D. Defines test suites

Answer: (C)

A .forceignore file controls what the Salesforce CLI should skip when converting your source into the Metadata API (mdapi) format. When you run the source-to-mdapi conversion, the patterns in this file are used to exclude any files that match, so only the intended metadata is transformed and packaged for deployment or retrieval. This helps keep the mdapi output clean—avoiding non-metadata files, temporary artifacts, or local configuration from being included. It’s not about selecting deployment targets, defining test suites, or controlling version control—its primary role is to filter what gets included in the mdapi:convert process.

A .forceignore file controls what the Salesforce CLI should skip when converting your source into the Metadata API (mdapi) format. When you run the source-to-mdapi conversion, the patterns in this file are used to exclude any files that match, so only the intended metadata is transformed and packaged for deployment or retrieval. This helps keep the mdapi output clean—avoiding non-metadata files, temporary artifacts, or local configuration from being included. It’s not about selecting deployment targets, defining test suites, or controlling version control—its primary role is to filter what gets included in the mdapi:convert process.