title: How do I manage an Android/Eclipse/Git project across multiple platforms?
body: <p>I'm working on an Android group project, and have been running into issues with Eclipse's .metadata folder and git. </p>
  
  <p>Originally, I didn't include the .metadata folder, which caused one teammate's eclipse workspace to completely break. The projects wouldn't show up in the package explorer, and the SDK couldn't be found. I am working under OSX and they're on Windows. So then I included the .metadata folder, and that fixed the problem with the projects not being found, but the commits are a nightmare! There are always thousands of insertions/deletions and the SDK is found, but it points to the wrong place.</p>
  
  <p>Another issue is <code>bin/</code> and <code>gen/</code> files still show up as added/modified in Git. I know I'm missing something that is probably very obvious.</p>
  
  <p><strong>My .gitignore</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code># Trying to get bin/gen to not show up in Windows
  AllTests/bin
  AllTests/gen
  Fire-Alert/bin
  Fire-Alert/gen
  
  # built application files
  *.apk
  *.ap_
  
  # files for the dex VM
  *.dex
  
  # Java class files
  *.class
  
  # generated files
  bin/
  gen/
  target/
  /bin
  /gen
  
  # Local configuration file (sdk path, etc)
  local.properties
  
  # Mac .DS_Store files
  .DS_Store
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>File structure of my Eclipse workspace:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>├── .git
  │   ├── branches
  │   ├── hooks
  │   ├── info
  │   ├── logs
  │   ├── objects
  │   └── refs
  ├── .metadata
  │   └── .plugins
  ├── AllTests
  │   ├── .settings
  │   ├── assets
  │   ├── bin
  │   ├── gen
  │   ├── res
  │   └── src
  └── Fire-Alert
      ├── .metadata
      ├── .settings
      ├── assets
      ├── bin
      ├── gen
      ├── libs
      ├── res
      └── src
  </code></pre>