diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ea0ff5f4d63..b8eddd7884b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ docs/html/
 docs/build.log
 
 ## eclipse ignores (use 'mvn eclipse:eclipse' to build eclipse projects)
-## The only configuration files which are not ignored are .settings since
-## these files ensure common coding style across Eclipse and IDEA
+## The only configuration files which are not ignored are certain files in
+## .settings (as listed below) since these files ensure common coding 
+## style across Eclipse and IDEA.
 ## Other files (.project, .classpath) should be generated through Maven which
 ## will correctly set the classpath based on the declared dependencies.
 .project
@@ -22,7 +23,10 @@ eclipse-build
 */.project
 */.classpath
 */eclipse-build
-/.settings/org.eclipse.m2e.*
+/.settings/
+!/.settings/org.eclipse.core.resources.prefs
+!/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.core.prefs
+!/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
 
 ## netbeans ignores
 nb-configuration.xml