diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ccdef02b2..b62055a39 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -33,6 +33,14 @@ libtool
 *~
 *.log
 *.trs
+
+coverage/
+coverage.html
+coverage.*.html
+*.gcda
+*.gcno
+*.gcov
+
 src/libsecp256k1-config.h
 src/libsecp256k1-config.h.in
 src/ecmult_static_context.h
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 197a56fff..a7eb2b0e8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -96,7 +96,8 @@ To create a report, `gcovr` is recommended, as it includes branch coverage repor
 
 To create a HTML report with coloured and annotated source code:
 
-    $ gcovr --exclude 'src/bench*' --html --html-details -o coverage.html
+    $ mkdir -p coverage
+    $ gcovr --exclude 'src/bench*' --html --html-details -o coverage/coverage.html
 
 Reporting a vulnerability
 ------------
diff --git a/obj/.gitignore b/obj/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29bb..000000000