diff --git a/scripts/check-gitignore.sh b/scripts/check-gitignore.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..17e06f99ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check-gitignore.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+## files we might want to ignore
+git ls-files -o --exclude-standard | sed -e "s:.:\/\\0:"
+
+## files we are accidentally ignoring
+git ls-files -i --exclude-standard | sed -e "s:.:\!\/\\0:"
+