diff --git a/chefignore b/chefignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ba30af6cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/chefignore
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# Put files/directories that should be ignored in this file.
+# Lines that start with '# ' are comments.
+
+# emacs
+*~
+
+# vim
+*.sw[a-z]
+
+# subversion
+*/.svn/*