Ignore the sites/default folder in your repo!

When working with Drupal 7 and a repository, it's just best to completely ignore the sites/default folder.  Why?

  • Drupal 7 will lock down the permissions on this directory making your Repo updates fail.
  • This folder typically stores the files directory.

Your wise friend Drupal 7 will always try to lock down the sites/default folder permissions.  When that happens, your repo update will crash because it can't write updates there if there are any.  Most of the time that is not an issue, but when it is, well, you will have issues.  If you have the files directory in sites.default, that will happen ALL THE TIME.  Read on:

By default, the files directory will be created in that default directory.  Unless you move it during installation, that is where files will reside.  Typically we DON'T want to add content (ie file content) into the code repo.  If you have lots of content in the files directory, you will overrun your repo, which causes all sorts of OTHER issues.  

So get started right, and ignore sites/default, and the files directory, wherever it resides.