diff --git a/file.go b/file.go
index 28f600b..8fdd8a4 100644
--- a/file.go
+++ b/file.go
@@ -353,7 +353,7 @@ func (f *FileWalker) walkDirectoryRecursive(iteration int,
 					return err
 				}
 
-				gitIgnore := gitignore.New(bytes.NewReader(c), abs, nil)
+				gitIgnore := gitignore.New(bytes.NewReader(c), filepath.ToSlash(abs), nil)
 				gitignores = append(gitignores, gitIgnore)
 			}
 		}
@@ -435,6 +435,22 @@ func (f *FileWalker) walkDirectoryRecursive(iteration int,
 			}
 		}
 	}
+	if !f.IgnoreGitIgnore {
+		gitdir := os.Getenv("GIT_DIR")
+		if gitdir == "" {
+			gitdir = filepath.Join(directory, ".git")
+		}
+		file := filepath.Join(gitdir, "info", "exclude")
+		if content, err := os.ReadFile(file); err == nil {
+			abs, err := filepath.Abs(directory)
+			if err == nil {
+				gitExclude := gitignore.New(bytes.NewReader(content), abs, nil)
+				if gitExclude != nil {
+					gitignores = append(gitignores, gitExclude)
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
 
 	// If we have custom ignore patterns defined we should concatenate them and treat them as a single gitignore file
 	if len(f.CustomIgnorePatterns) > 0 {
@@ -456,7 +472,7 @@ func (f *FileWalker) walkDirectoryRecursive(iteration int,
 	for _, file := range files {
 		shouldIgnore := false
 		var skipReason SkipReason
-		joined := filepath.Join(directory, file.Name())
+		joined := filepath.ToSlash(filepath.Join(directory, file.Name()))
 
 		for _, ignore := range gitignores {
 			// we have the following situations
@@ -634,7 +650,7 @@ func (f *FileWalker) walkDirectoryRecursive(iteration int,
 	for _, dir := range dirs {
 		var shouldIgnore bool
 		var skipReason SkipReason
-		joined := filepath.Join(directory, dir.Name())
+		joined := filepath.ToSlash(filepath.Join(directory, dir.Name()))
 
 		// Check against the ignore files we have if the file we are looking at
 		// should be ignored
diff --git a/file_test.go b/file_test.go
index a384d0b..23c9f32 100644
--- a/file_test.go
+++ b/file_test.go
@@ -1500,3 +1500,134 @@ func TestSkipHandlerNilIsIgnored(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Error("Expected 0 files")
 	}
 }
+
+func TestCRLFGitignore(t *testing.T) {
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+
+	content := "vendor/\r\n*.log\r\nbuild/\r\n"
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, ".gitignore"), []byte(content), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(dir, "vendor", "pkg"), 0755)
+	os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, "vendor", "pkg", "lib.go"), []byte("package p"), 0644)
+	os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, "debug.log"), []byte("log"), 0644)
+	os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, "main.go"), []byte("package main"), 0644)
+
+	queue := make(chan *File, 100)
+	walker := NewFileWalker(dir, queue)
+	go walker.Start()
+
+	var found []string
+	for f := range queue {
+		rel, _ := filepath.Rel(dir, f.Location)
+		found = append(found, filepath.ToSlash(rel))
+	}
+
+	foundMain := false
+	for _, p := range found {
+		if p == "main.go" {
+			foundMain = true
+		}
+		if strings.HasPrefix(p, "vendor/") {
+			t.Errorf("vendor/ should be gitignored but got: %s", p)
+		}
+		if strings.HasSuffix(p, ".log") {
+			t.Errorf("*.log should be gitignored but got: %s", p)
+		}
+	}
+	if !foundMain {
+		t.Error("expected main.go to be found but it was not")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestWindowsPathNormalization(t *testing.T) {
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+
+	os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, ".gitignore"), []byte("build/\n"), 0644)
+	os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(dir, "build"), 0755)
+	os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, "build", "out.bin"), []byte("bin"), 0644)
+	os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, "main.go"), []byte("package main"), 0644)
+
+	queue := make(chan *File, 100)
+	walker := NewFileWalker(dir, queue)
+	go walker.Start()
+
+	var found []string
+	for f := range queue {
+		rel, _ := filepath.Rel(dir, f.Location)
+		found = append(found, filepath.ToSlash(rel))
+	}
+
+	foundMain := false
+	for _, p := range found {
+		if p == "main.go" {
+			foundMain = true
+		}
+		if strings.HasPrefix(p, "build/") {
+			t.Errorf("build/ should be gitignored but got: %s", p)
+		}
+	}
+	if !foundMain {
+		t.Error("expected main.go to be found but it was not")
+	}
+}
+func TestGitInfoExclude(t *testing.T) {
+	testDir, _ := os.MkdirTemp(os.TempDir(), randSeq(10))
+	_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(testDir, ".git", "info"), 0755)
+	_ = os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(testDir, ".git", "info", "exclude"), []byte("secret.txt\n"), 0644)
+	_, _ = os.Create(filepath.Join(testDir, "secret.txt"))
+	_, _ = os.Create(filepath.Join(testDir, "visible.txt"))
+
+	fileListQueue := make(chan *File, 10)
+	walker := NewFileWalker(testDir, fileListQueue)
+	walker.IgnoreGitIgnore = false
+	_ = walker.Start()
+
+	count := 0
+	for range fileListQueue {
+		count++
+	}
+
+	if count != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("expected 1 file but got %d", count)
+	}
+}
+func TestGitInfoExcludeNoGitDir(t *testing.T) {
+	testDir, _ := os.MkdirTemp(os.TempDir(), randSeq(10))
+	_, _ = os.Create(filepath.Join(testDir, "visible.txt"))
+
+	fileListQueue := make(chan *File, 10)
+	walker := NewFileWalker(testDir, fileListQueue)
+	walker.IgnoreGitIgnore = false
+	_ = walker.Start()
+
+	count := 0
+	for range fileListQueue {
+		count++
+	}
+
+	if count != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("expected 1 file but got %d", count)
+	}
+}
+func TestGitInfoExcludeIgnoredWhenGitIgnoreDisabled(t *testing.T) {
+	testDir, _ := os.MkdirTemp(os.TempDir(), randSeq(10))
+	_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(testDir, ".git", "info"), 0755)
+	_ = os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(testDir, ".git", "info", "exclude"), []byte("secret.txt\n"), 0644)
+	_, _ = os.Create(filepath.Join(testDir, "secret.txt"))
+
+	fileListQueue := make(chan *File, 10)
+	walker := NewFileWalker(testDir, fileListQueue)
+	walker.IgnoreGitIgnore = true
+	_ = walker.Start()
+
+	count := 0
+	for range fileListQueue {
+		count++
+	}
+
+	if count != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("expected 1 file but got %d", count)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/go-gitignore/gitignore.go b/go-gitignore/gitignore.go
index e0b5df2..9e59536 100644
--- a/go-gitignore/gitignore.go
+++ b/go-gitignore/gitignore.go
@@ -249,6 +249,7 @@ func (i *ignore) Match(path string) Match {
 
 func (i *ignore) MatchIsDir(path string, _isdir bool) Match {
 	// ensure we have the absolute path for the given file
+	path = filepath.ToSlash(path) // normalize before cache lookup
 	if v, ok := matchIsDirCache.Load(path); ok {
 		return i.Absolute(v.(string), _isdir)
 	}
@@ -258,6 +259,7 @@ func (i *ignore) MatchIsDir(path string, _isdir bool) Match {
 		i._errors(NewError(_err, Position{}))
 		return nil
 	}
+	_path = filepath.ToSlash(_path) // ensure stored value is slash-form
 	matchIsDirCache.Store(path, _path)
 
 	// attempt to match the absolute path
diff --git a/go-gitignore/lexer.go b/go-gitignore/lexer.go
index db3b041..3714367 100644
--- a/go-gitignore/lexer.go
+++ b/go-gitignore/lexer.go
@@ -319,7 +319,6 @@ func (l *lexer) eol() ([]rune, Error) {
 
 		// carriage return - we expect to see a newline next
 		case _CR:
-			_line = append(_line, _next)
 			_next, _err = l.read()
 			if _err != nil {
 				return _line, _err
diff --git a/go-gitignore/repository.go b/go-gitignore/repository.go
index 1a69cdf..5e91e6a 100644
--- a/go-gitignore/repository.go
+++ b/go-gitignore/repository.go
@@ -238,7 +238,8 @@ func (r *repository) Relative(path string, isdir bool) Match {
 	//		  move up the path hierarchy
 	var _last string
 	for {
-		_file := filepath.Join(r._base, _parent, r._file)
+		_file := r._base + string(os.PathSeparator) +
+			filepath.FromSlash(_parent) + string(os.PathSeparator) + r._file
 		_ignore := NewWithCache(_file, r._cache, r._errors)
 		if _ignore != nil {
 			_match := _ignore.Relative(_local, isdir)
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index dde6c7d..726e4cc 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -1,4 +1,12 @@
 github.com/danwakefield/fnmatch v0.0.0-20160403171240-cbb64ac3d964 h1:y5HC9v93H5EPKqaS1UYVg1uYah5Xf51mBfIoWehClUQ=
 github.com/danwakefield/fnmatch v0.0.0-20160403171240-cbb64ac3d964/go.mod h1:Xd9hchkHSWYkEqJwUGisez3G1QY8Ryz0sdWrLPMGjLk=
+github.com/davecgh/go-spew v1.1.1 h1:vj9j/u1bqnvCEfJOwUhtlOARqs3+rkHYY13jYWTU97c=
+github.com/davecgh/go-spew v1.1.1/go.mod h1:J7Y8YcW2NihsgmVo/mv3lAwl/skON4iLHjSsI+c5H38=
+github.com/pmezard/go-difflib v1.0.0 h1:4DBwDE0NGyQoBHbLQYPwSUPoCMWR5BEzIk/f1lZbAQM=
+github.com/pmezard/go-difflib v1.0.0/go.mod h1:iKH77koFhYxTK1pcRnkKkqfTogsbg7gZNVY4sRDYZ/4=
+github.com/stretchr/testify v1.11.1 h1:7s2iGBzp5EwR7/aIZr8ao5+dra3wiQyKjjFuvgVKu7U=
+github.com/stretchr/testify v1.11.1/go.mod h1:wZwfW3scLgRK+23gO65QZefKpKQRnfz6sD981Nm4B6U=
 golang.org/x/sync v0.12.0 h1:MHc5BpPuC30uJk597Ri8TV3CNZcTLu6B6z4lJy+g6Jw=
 golang.org/x/sync v0.12.0/go.mod h1:1dzgHSNfp02xaA81J2MS99Qcpr2w7fw1gpm99rleRqA=
+gopkg.in/yaml.v3 v3.0.1 h1:fxVm/GzAzEWqLHuvctI91KS9hhNmmWOoWu0XTYJS7CA=
+gopkg.in/yaml.v3 v3.0.1/go.mod h1:K4uyk7z7BCEPqu6E+C64Yfv1cQ7kz7rIZviUmN+EgEM=