diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 5b564ec900..0f33435b67 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,11 +20,12 @@ anyhow = "1.0.28"
 chrono = "0.4"
 clap = { version = "3.0", features = ["cargo"] }
 clap_complete = "3.0"
-once_cell = "1"
 env_logger = "0.9.0"
+gitignore = "1.0"
 handlebars = "4.0"
 log = "0.4"
 memchr = "2.0"
+once_cell = "1"
 opener = "0.5"
 pulldown-cmark = { version = "0.9.1", default-features = false }
 regex = "1.5.5"
@@ -37,7 +38,6 @@ topological-sort = "0.1.0"
 
 # Watch feature
 notify = { version = "4.0", optional = true }
-gitignore = { version = "1.0", optional = true }
 
 # Serve feature
 futures-util = { version = "0.3.4", optional = true }
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ walkdir = "2.0"
 
 [features]
 default = ["watch", "serve", "search"]
-watch = ["notify", "gitignore"]
+watch = ["notify"]
 serve = ["futures-util", "tokio", "warp"]
 search = ["elasticlunr-rs", "ammonia"]
 
diff --git a/src/renderer/html_handlebars/hbs_renderer.rs b/src/renderer/html_handlebars/hbs_renderer.rs
index 710449af0d..c3dc2ea4b7 100644
--- a/src/renderer/html_handlebars/hbs_renderer.rs
+++ b/src/renderer/html_handlebars/hbs_renderer.rs
@@ -589,7 +589,28 @@ impl Renderer for HtmlHandlebars {
             .context("Unable to emit redirects")?;
 
         // Copy all remaining files, avoid a recursive copy from/to the book build dir
-        utils::fs::copy_files_except_ext(&src_dir, destination, true, Some(&build_dir), &["md"])?;
+        let mdbook_ignore = src_dir.join(".mdbookignore");
+        let exclusion_checker = if mdbook_ignore.exists() {
+            match gitignore::File::new(&mdbook_ignore) {
+                Ok(exclusion_checker) => Some(exclusion_checker),
+                Err(err) => {
+                    warn!("Unable to load '.mdbookignore' file: {}", err);
+
+                    None
+                }
+            }
+        } else {
+            None
+        };
+
+        utils::fs::copy_files_except_ext(
+            &src_dir,
+            destination,
+            true,
+            Some(&build_dir),
+            &["md"],
+            exclusion_checker.as_ref(),
+        )?;
 
         Ok(())
     }
diff --git a/src/utils/fs.rs b/src/utils/fs.rs
index 0d6f383746..0f68361082 100644
--- a/src/utils/fs.rs
+++ b/src/utils/fs.rs
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ pub fn copy_files_except_ext(
     recursive: bool,
     avoid_dir: Option<&PathBuf>,
     ext_blacklist: &[&str],
+    exclusion_checker: Option<&gitignore::File<'_>>,
 ) -> Result<()> {
     debug!(
         "Copying all files from {} to {} (blacklist: {:?}), avoiding {:?}",
@@ -128,6 +129,12 @@ pub fn copy_files_except_ext(
                 }
             }
 
+            if let Some(exclusion_checker) = exclusion_checker {
+                if let Ok(true) = exclusion_checker.is_excluded(&entry.path()) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+            }
+
             // check if output dir already exists
             if !to.join(entry.file_name()).exists() {
                 fs::create_dir(&to.join(entry.file_name()))?;
@@ -139,6 +146,7 @@ pub fn copy_files_except_ext(
                 true,
                 avoid_dir,
                 ext_blacklist,
+                exclusion_checker,
             )?;
         } else if metadata.is_file() {
             // Check if it is in the blacklist
@@ -147,6 +155,13 @@ pub fn copy_files_except_ext(
                     continue;
                 }
             }
+
+            if let Some(exclusion_checker) = exclusion_checker {
+                if let Ok(true) = exclusion_checker.is_excluded(&entry.path()) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+            }
+
             debug!(
                 "creating path for file: {:?}",
                 &to.join(
@@ -247,9 +262,14 @@ mod tests {
             panic!("Could not create output/sub_dir_exists: {}", err);
         }
 
-        if let Err(e) =
-            copy_files_except_ext(tmp.path(), &tmp.path().join("output"), true, None, &["md"])
-        {
+        if let Err(e) = copy_files_except_ext(
+            tmp.path(),
+            &tmp.path().join("output"),
+            true,
+            None,
+            &["md"],
+            None,
+        ) {
             panic!("Error while executing the function:\n{:?}", e);
         }