diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b6230a6..619ff61 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,8 +6,14 @@ build
 
 logs/*.log
 logs/*.log.gz
-conf/*.conf
-conf/*.xml
+
+
+# Ignore all files under conf
+conf/**
+# Except all subdirectories so git will search all those
+!conf/**/
+# But do NOT ignore those 'example' files
+!conf/**/*.example
 
 # Ignore all files under data
 data/**