diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ba0de477a8d1c290239320ebd895bb95af21280e..4f02efce7137efca851e4987eeaf10da1312380b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,5 +3,7 @@ localConfig.php
 DEBUG
 _DEBUG
 input/*
+!input/dummy.txt
 output/*
+!output/dummy.txt
 
diff --git a/input/dummy.txt b/input/dummy.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..82ca9bf50f3b67cdb5d1cd1ed8f8f7d0c42b423e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/input/dummy.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+This file is to create the input folder. Empty folders are ignored by git.
+
diff --git a/output/dummy.txt b/output/dummy.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..974babf4cd8f908d853e3e59e96e3f529286a2cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/output/dummy.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+This file is to create the output folder. Empty folders are ignored by git.
+