diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0eba26c9e6..fd78464444 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -11,7 +11,11 @@ Snap.*
 *.class
 
 # maven
-target/
+# DO NOT ignore all 'target' folders because PDE has numerous packages with elements named 'target'
+/target/
+/*/target/
+/*/*/target/
+
 .DS_Store
 .polyglot.*
 pom.tycho
diff --git a/apitools/.gitignore b/apitools/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index b83d22266a..0000000000
--- a/apitools/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/target/
diff --git a/build/org.eclipse.pde.build/.gitignore b/build/org.eclipse.pde.build/.gitignore
index dab215db28..dde42e368d 100644
--- a/build/org.eclipse.pde.build/.gitignore
+++ b/build/org.eclipse.pde.build/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-bin
 lib
 bin_ant
 temp*
diff --git a/ds/.gitignore b/ds/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index b83d22266a..0000000000
--- a/ds/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/target/
diff --git a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/.gitignore b/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 5e56e040ec..0000000000
--- a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/bin
diff --git a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test0/.gitignore b/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test0/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 5e56e040ec..0000000000
--- a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test0/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/bin
diff --git a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test1/.gitignore b/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test1/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 5e56e040ec..0000000000
--- a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test1/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/bin
diff --git a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test2/.gitignore b/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test2/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index ae3c172604..0000000000
--- a/ds/org.eclipse.pde.ds.annotations.tests/projects/test2/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/bin/
diff --git a/ua/.gitignore b/ua/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index b83d22266a..0000000000
--- a/ua/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/target/
diff --git a/ui/.gitignore b/ui/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index b83d22266a..0000000000
--- a/ui/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/target/
diff --git a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.core/.gitignore b/ui/org.eclipse.pde.core/.gitignore
index 110065d060..3346eaac85 100644
--- a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.core/.gitignore
+++ b/ui/org.eclipse.pde.core/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 /ant_tasks/
 /binary/
+/OSGI-INF/org.eclipse.*.xml
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.core/OSGI-INF/.gitignore b/ui/org.eclipse.pde.core/OSGI-INF/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index b878e882ac..0000000000
--- a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.core/OSGI-INF/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/*.xml
diff --git a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.junit.runtime.tests/test-bundles/.gitignore b/ui/org.eclipse.pde.junit.runtime.tests/test-bundles/.gitignore
index ac0730160c..e07ffcde94 100644
--- a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.junit.runtime.tests/test-bundles/.gitignore
+++ b/ui/org.eclipse.pde.junit.runtime.tests/test-bundles/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
-bin/
 testbin/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.ui.tests/tests/projects/.gitignore b/ui/org.eclipse.pde.ui.tests/tests/projects/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index ba077a4031..0000000000
--- a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.ui.tests/tests/projects/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-bin
diff --git a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.ui.tests/tests/smartImport/JavaEclipseProject/.gitignore b/ui/org.eclipse.pde.ui.tests/tests/smartImport/JavaEclipseProject/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index ae3c172604..0000000000
--- a/ui/org.eclipse.pde.ui.tests/tests/smartImport/JavaEclipseProject/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-/bin/