diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..05c771f81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+*.o
+*.pyc
+*.os
+*.so
+*.a
+*.dylib
+plugins/input/*.input
+
+bindings/python/mapnik/paths.py
+config.cache
+config.log
+config.py
+.sconf_temp/
+.sconsign.dblite
+
+demo/viewer/viewer.ini
+tests/cpp_tests/font_registration_test
+utils/mapnik-config/mapnik-config
+utils/mapnik-config/mapnik2.pc
+utils/shapeindex/shapeindex
+utils/svg2png/svg2png
+demo/python/demo*
+demo/python/map.xml
+