diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b8377874
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+*.class
+*.DS_Store
+*~
+*.swp
+*.out
+*/bin/*
+com.ibm.wala.cast.java.polyglot/lib/java_cup.jar
+com.ibm.wala.cast.java.polyglot/lib/polyglot.jar