diff --git a/make/topdir.mk b/make/topdir.mk
index f1bd44c4..e83c60e3 100644
--- a/make/topdir.mk
+++ b/make/topdir.mk
@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ JW_PKG_TMPL_UPDATE          ?= $(PYTHON) $(JWB_SCRIPT_DIR)/jw-pkg.py -p $(PROJEC
 				projects create-file --format tmpl --search-path $(subst $(space),:,$(JW_PKG_TMPL_SEARCH_PATH)) --template-name
 
 GITIGNORE_PATTERNS_TOP      ?= $(PROJECT)
-GITIGNORE_PATTERNS_END      ?= $(addprefix !,$(shell git ls-files 2>/dev/null | grep "\(\b$(PROJECT)\b\|__init__.py\)" | xargs))
+GITIGNORE_PATTERNS_TOP_INV  ?= $(subst $(space),|,$(strip $(addprefix \b,$(addsuffix \b,$(GITIGNORE_PATTERNS_TOP))) __init__\.py))
+GITIGNORE_PATTERNS_END      ?= $(addprefix !,$(shell git ls-files 2>/dev/null | grep -E "($(GITIGNORE_PATTERNS_TOP_INV))" | xargs))
 
 all: topdir config
 test: all