How do I remove local (untracked) files from the current Git working tree?

Question

How do I delete untracked local files from the current working tree?

Contraposition

This interactive git cheat sheet ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html shows the git workspace (google gives you better results with "workspace" than "working copy"). – Heddy

Note: if you only want to remove some untracked files, but not all of them, git clean has now an interactive mode! See my answer to this other question: git 1.8.4+ – Novitiate

Before you post a new answer, consider there are already 25+ answers for this question. Make sure that your answer contributes what is not among existing answers – Elderly

To clarify for the understanding of the uninitiated and those new to Git - run git status and if it shows a file as untracked, and you don't want that file in the repo, you can just go to your filesystem and delete or move it. This will not do anything bad to your local repo or to Git. You can also use git clean or some variation in the answers below, including the interactive version to delete just selective files, but interactive mode can be tedious. Whatever you do, make sure you understand what git clean will delete or use --dry-run to have it tell you without deleting anything. – Dich

If the files are not yet being tracked, couldn't you just remove them without git? rm files-to-be-deleted – Thrive

Git clean now offers an interactive mode for selectively removing specific untracked files, allowing you to choose which files to remove while leaving others untouched. – Stranglehold

Answer 1

git-clean - Remove untracked files from the working tree

Synopsis

git clean [-d] [-f] [-i] [-n] [-q] [-e <pattern>] [-x | -X] [--] <path>…​

Description

Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are not under version control, starting from the current directory.

Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the -x option is specified, ignored files are also removed. This can, for example, be useful to remove all build products.

If any optional <path>... arguments are given, only those paths are affected.

---

Step 1 is to show what will be deleted by using the -n option:

# Print out the list of files and directories which will be removed (dry run)
git clean -n -d

Clean Step - beware: this will delete files:

# Delete the files from the repository
git clean -f

• To remove directories, run git clean -f -d or git clean -fd
• To remove ignored files, run git clean -f -X or git clean -fX
• To remove ignored and non-ignored files, run git clean -f -x or git clean -fx

Note the case difference on the X for the two latter commands.

If clean.requireForce is set to "true" (the default) in your configuration, one needs to specify -f otherwise nothing will actually happen.

Again see the git-clean docs for more information.

---

Options

-f, --force

If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set to false, git clean will refuse to run unless given -f, -n or -i.

-x

Don’t use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore rules given with -e options. This allows removing all untracked files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in conjunction with git reset) to create a pristine working directory to test a clean build.

-X

Remove only files ignored by Git. This may be useful to rebuild everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.

-n, --dry-run

Don’t actually remove anything, just show what would be done.

-d

Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files. If an untracked directory is managed by a different Git repository, it is not removed by default. Use -f option twice if you really want to remove such a directory.

Amory

git clean -f works only in the directory where it's called (and subdirectories). If you want to clean the whole working copy, you should call it in its root directory. – Believe

It is also removing all files inside .gitignore. I need to delete only files/folders which are new and not in .gitignore – Generate

@Generate If you don't want to remove files that are in .gitignore, then do not provide the -x flag. – Sparteine

Note that -x or -X flags remove the files ignored by .gitignore, but not those ignored by update-index --assume-unchanged. – Ruppert

I am sorry if I am missing anything, but is git clean -f different from simply deleting the file ? – Nellnella

git clean -f :/ works as if you had run it in the root repo dir. See also later answers also accounting for submodules with git clean -ffxd :/ – Frick

@maan81, you're right. git clean -f is no different from simply deleting a file. But that doesn't make it useless as I, maybe incorrectly, feel you implied. When you have a lot of build artifacts, that is hundreds of files in tens of directories, "simply deleting" them may turn out to be not that "simple". You will have to script it. That's what git clean -f does for you as it knows exactly which files do and which don't belong to the repo. – Backlog

After struggling and cursing for 45 solid minutes, I found @EduardoBezerra's comment... I think the OP should edit his answer to emphasize git clean's behavior - of only deleting stuff in the directory you are - and subdirectories thereof. It's not clear from git help or from the answer itself. – Injunction

Just wanna add the note that you have to be in the correct directory (not inside a "repo" within a mono repo). Because git status tells you about the entire repo where git clean only looks in the dir you are located. – Procora

I have a folder entry in .gitignore, but it gets not ignored: When git clean -f, it gets deleted although I want to keep it on the fs but remove it from the untracked view in git. With git diff I get on .gitignore: Binary files a/.gitignore and b/.gitignore differ. Maybe I have to look here? – Computerize

Answer 2

Use git clean -f -d to make sure that directories are also removed.

1. Don’t actually remove anything, just show what would be done.

   git clean -n
   

   or

   git clean --dry-run
   

2. Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files. If an untracked directory is managed by a different Git repository, it is not removed by default. Use the -f option twice if you really want to remove such a directory.

   git clean -fd
   

You can then check if your files are really gone with git status.

Barrington

As previously stated, good to dry-run it with git clean -n -d – Blunger

Same thing is to do git clean -nd and git clean -fd. – Nonconformity

Using -n or --dry-run by themselves did nothing. As per @Blunger and @Micer, you need to add -d, as in git clean -nd to show what it is going to remove. – Sigridsigsmond

git clean -fd worked like a charm ...thanks robert saved my hours – Drumlin

Answer 3

I am surprised nobody mentioned this before:

git clean -i

That stands for interactive and you will get a quick overview of what is going to be deleted offering you the possibility to include/exclude the affected files. Overall, still faster than running the mandatory --dry-run before the real cleaning.

You will have to toss in a -d if you also want to take care of empty folders. At the end, it makes for a nice alias:

git iclean

That being said, the extra hand holding of interactive commands can be tiring for experienced users. These days I just use the already mentioned git clean -fd

Headon

@pal4life It was added in 1.8.4, you might be running an older version of git? github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.4.txt – Scanty

I like this – I'm more comfortable having it in my bash history than any of the other options, because it's no big deal if I accidentally ctrl-r or ctrl-p to it. – Recount

Could it be that git clean -i works only if called from the root of the working copy? – Randalrandall

Answer 4

git-clean - Remove untracked files from the working tree

Flocculant

git clean -f 'untracked file path' – Dovelike

Answer 5

Simple Way to remove untracked files

To remove all untracked files, The simple way is to add all of them first and reset the repo as below

git add --all
git reset --hard HEAD

---

Holozoic

You can replace git add --all by git add .. So you can do it in a shorter way in oneline git add . && git reset --hard HEAD ( be very carefull with this command). – Lukelukens

Because git clean apparently also deletes everything that is ignored. It just deleted my node_modules folder. Doing this would first stage all files except for the ignored ones, and then delete them by doing a reset. Ignored files will not be touched. – Beverie

@Beverie it doesn't delete ignored files for me (git 2.14.1). You should run git clean -n anyway before doing the real deletion (or use git clean -i). – Quarto

git clean deletes ignored files only if you use either the -x or -X option, otherwise it just deletes untracked files. – Tomekatomes

@user2864740 If I am getting it right, this option will not only removed untracked files but users will also lose any changes they made in tracked files. For those it worked, they may be looking to reset those changes apart from deleting untracked files, though that is not the question here. – Koa

@RousseauAlexandre git add . only adds from the current directory on down, whereas git add --all applies to the repo. The latter appears like a safer option. – Silly

Awesome... I already ran the solution for my commit from #927858 and this was all I needed. – Twelfthtide

Is it necessary to specify HEAD here ? I tried without and it worked. – Volscian

I find this safer in general than git clean -- less room for error, using the wrong flag, etc. – Insignificance

Please be cautious before doing that. That will remove "all" changes. If you want to remove only some of the changes, then do not do this. – Suppression

Answer 6

If untracked directory is a git repository of its own (e.g. submodule), you need to use -f twice:

git clean -d -f -f

Compensate

BTW, this is written in documentation : Git will refuse to delete directories with .git sub directory or file unless a second -f is given. But thanks anyway! – Checkerbloom

@MaximSuslov There would be significantly fewer questions asked on SO if documentation were as helpful as your comment suggests. But thanks anyway! – Tillis

You may want to cd to the root folder before running it, e.g. cd to git rev-parse --show-toplevel – Hesta

Answer 7

This is what I always use:

git clean -fdx

For a very large project you might want to run it a couple of times.

Armond

@Martin One of the projects I'm working on is +8 years old with +80 developers actively coding. Git sometimes fails to clean it on the first pass. – Armond

I can confirm this, so this is still valid in 2020. We are also working on a large project and I had to run it 4-5 times until GIT did not find any more files to be deleted. – Explicit

Main thing to keep in mind is that above command works only on the directory you are in. So if you run above command in subfolder then it doesnt remove untracked files from parent folder or it's other subfolders. – Gap

Answer 8

I like git stash push -u because you can undo them all with git stash pop.

EDIT: Also I found a way to show untracked file in a stash (e.g. git show stash@{0}^3) https://mcmap.net/q/11474/-in-git-is-there-a-way-to-show-untracked-stashed-files-without-applying-the-stash

EDIT2: git stash save is deprecated in favor of push. Thanks @script-wolf.

Doorstop

Can you explain the -u on the stash? I do not follow how that works differently from git stash save. I tried this and it worked. Looked on git docs and could not find it there either. – Van

-u is equivalent to --include-untracked. You can find a help with git help stash. – Doorstop

@Doorstop Thanks! after trying every darn solution from a dozen different people this is the one that finally worked...whew ! Even a git stash did nada. The save - u took care of untracked. reset hard /clean force/etc none of these did anything for me. – Glass

The save option was deprecated in favor of push, which does the same but more. You can read more here, https://mcmap.net/q/11475/-what-39-s-the-difference-between-git-stash-save-and-git-stash-push/44681952 – Navigation

Answer 9

Be careful while running `git clean` command.

Always use -n first

Always use -n before running the clean command as it will show you what files would get removed.

-d Normally, when no is specified, git clean will not recurse into untracked directories to avoid removing too much. Specify -d to have it recurse into such directories as well. If any paths are specified, -d is irrelevant; all untracked files matching the specified paths (with exceptions for nested git directories mentioned under --force) will be removed.

-f | --force If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set to false, git clean will refuse to delete files or directories unless given -f or -i. Git will refuse to modify untracked nested git repositories (directories with a .git subdirectory) unless a second -f is given.

git clean -n -d 
git clean -n -d -f

Now run without -n if output was what you intend to remove.

git clean -d -f

By default, git clean will only remove untracked files that are not ignored. Any file that matches a pattern in your .gitignore or other ignore files will not be removed. If you want to remove those files too, you can add a -x to the clean command.

git clean -f -d -x

There is also interactive mode available -i with the clean command

git clean -x -i

Alternatively

If you are not 100% sure that deleting your uncommitted work is safe, you could use stashing instead

git stash --all

Before you use stash --all note: If the --all option is used, then the ignored files are stashed and cleaned in addition to the untracked files.

git stash push --keep-index

If the --keep-index option is used, all changes already added to the index are left intact. Your staged changes remain in your workspace, but at the same time, they are also saved into your stash.

Calling git stash without any arguments is equivalent to git stash push.

git stash push -m "name your stash" // before git stash save (deprecated)

Stashing based on the used flags can clear your directory from unstaged / staged files by writing them to stash storage. I give’s flexibility to retrieve the files at any point in time using stash with apply or pop. Then if you are fine with removing your stashed files you could run:

git stash drop // or clean

To see full instruction on how to work with stash see this How to name and retrieve a stash by name in git?

Everard

the stash is a good idea, however you might wanna use git stash save and type some comment as to what this stash was for – Crease

I had about 20 images I wanted removed from various directories but git stash --all removed thousands of files and broke my project. What's up with that? It even removed vendor directory. I would be cautious using this. Luckily I am doing this in a local repo at home and not in production. – Cleek

git stash --all Will remove vendor directory, node_modules, .env and storage files in Laravel plus what ever else I missed. I had to composer install, recreate my .env file and recreate cache folders in storage. Terrible idea unless you want to remove untracked files plus everything that's inside your .gitignore file – Cleek

newer git versions can use git stash push which is also able to stash untracked files – Wiliness

Answer 10

git-clean is what you are looking for. It is used to remove untracked files from the working tree.

Quotha

Answer 11

If needed to remove untracked files from particular subdirectory,

git clean -f {dir_path}

And combined way to delete untracked dir/files and ignored files.

git clean -fxd {dir_path}

after this you will have modified files only in git status.

Gadwall

Answer 12

Remove all extra folders and files in this repo + submodules

This gets you in same state as fresh clone.

git clean -ffdx

Remove all extra folders and files in this repo but not its submodules

git clean -fdx

Remove extra folders but not files (ex. build or logs folder)

git clean -fd

Remove extra folders + ignored files (but not newly added files)

If file wasn't ignored and not yet checked-in then it stays. Note the capital X.

git clean -fdX

New interactive mode

git clean

Tiffinytiffy

This answer works great! You can always add --dry-run option to list the files/folders to remove before commit the action – Dol

Answer 13

OK, deleting unwanted untracked files and folders are easy using git in command line, just do it like this:

git clean -fd

Double check before doing it as it will delete the files and folders without making any history...

Also in this case, -f stands for force and -d stands for directory...

So, if you want to delete files only, you can use -f only:

git clean -f

If you want to delete(directories) and files, you can delete only untracked directories and files like this:

git clean -fd

Also, you can use -x flag for including the files which are ignored by git. This would be helpful if you want to delete everything.

And adding -i flag, makes git asking you for permission for deleting files one by one on the go.

If you not sure and want to check things first, add -n flag.

Use -q if you don't want to see any report after successful deletion.

I also create the image below to make it more memorable, especially I have seen many people confuse -f for cleaning folder sometimes or mix it up somehow!

Tacitus

Answer 14

git clean -fd removes directory

git clean -fX removes ignored files

git clean -fx removes ignored and un-ignored files

can be used all above options in combination as

git clean -fdXx

check git manual for more help

Inconclusive

The command git clean -fdXx produces the error message "fatal: -x and -X cannot be used together" (using git-2.8). For your last sentence within your answer, please provide a link to git manual. Cheers – Bezant

Answer 15

A better way is to use: git clean

git clean -d -x -f

This removes untracked files, including directories (-d) and files ignored by git (-x).

Also, replace the -f argument with -n to perform a dry-run or -i for interactive mode and it will tell you what will be removed.

Marijn

Answer 16

User interactive approach:

git clean -i -fd

Remove .classpath [y/N]? N
Remove .gitignore [y/N]? N
Remove .project [y/N]? N
Remove .settings/ [y/N]? N
Remove src/com/arsdumpgenerator/inspector/ [y/N]? y
Remove src/com/arsdumpgenerator/manifest/ [y/N]? y
Remove src/com/arsdumpgenerator/s3/ [y/N]? y
Remove tst/com/arsdumpgenerator/manifest/ [y/N]? y
Remove tst/com/arsdumpgenerator/s3/ [y/N]? y

-i for interactive
-f for force
-d for directory
-x for ignored files(add if required)

Note: Add -n or --dry-run to just check what it will do.

Superabound

Answer 17

To remove Untracked files :

git add .
git reset --hard HEAD

Marabelle

Answer 18

A lifehack for such situation I just invented and tried (that works perfectly):

git add .
git reset --hard HEAD

Beware! Be sure to commit any needed changes (even in non-untracked files) before performing this.

Calvinna

At least this is a different approach. :) Another way, that would remember the deleted files in the reflog but not in any branches, would be: git add . git commit -m 'about to delete' git reset --hard HEAD~ – Sakti

even more quick way is git add . && git reset --hard HEAD – Calvinna

git add . && git reset --hard – Jallier

@AlexanderMills git reset --hard resets all uncommited changes BUT UNTRACKED FILES to the state of the latest commit. That is why we first need git add . -- that stages all untracked files (so they are reset, too) – Calvinna

Answer 19

For me only following worked:

git clean -ffdx

In all other cases, I was getting message "Skipping Directory" for some subdirectories.

Kerrison

Thanks. I left out the -x and just used git clean -ffd to avoid erasing files in the .gitignore. – Idiom

Answer 20

git clean -f -d -x $(git rev-parse --show-cdup) applies clean to the root directory, no matter where you call it within a repository directory tree. I use it all the time as it does not force you to leave the folder where you working now and allows to clean & commit right from the place where you are.

Be sure that flags -f, -d, -x match your needs:

-d
       Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files. If an
       untracked directory is managed by a different Git repository, it is
       not removed by default. Use -f option twice if you really want to
       remove such a directory.

-f, --force
       If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set to
       false, git clean will refuse to delete files or directories unless
       given -f, -n or -i. Git will refuse to delete directories with .git
       sub directory or file unless a second -f is given. This affects
       also git submodules where the storage area of the removed submodule
       under .git/modules/ is not removed until -f is given twice.

-x
       Don't use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per
       directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore
       rules given with -e options. This allows removing all untracked
       files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in
       conjunction with git reset) to create a pristine working directory
       to test a clean build.

There are other flags as well available, just check git clean --help.

Coronel

BTW you can just do git clean {flags} :/ so it will be as if you ran the command in the repo root – Contradictory

Answer 21

git add --all, git stash and git stash drop, try these three commands in this order inorder to remove all untracked files. By adding all those untracked files to git and stashing them will move all those untracked files to stash list and dropping out top one i.e., stash@{0} will remove the stashed changes from stash list.

Mandrel

Answer 22

If you just want to delete the files listed as untracked by 'git status'

git stash save -u
git stash drop "stash@{0}"

I prefer this to 'git clean' because 'git clean' will delete files ignored by git, so your next build will have to rebuild everything and you may lose your IDE settings too.

Excitant

This will also remove valid changes to tracked files. I wouldn't recommend it. – Stewardess

Yeah, you'd want to commit changes to tracked files first. – Excitant

Answer 23

To know what will be deleted before actually deleting:

git clean -d -n

It will output something like:

Would remove sample.txt

To delete everything listed in the output of the previous command:

git clean -d -f

It will output something like:

Removing sample.txt

Ferrand

Answer 24

To remove the untracked files you should first use command to view the files that will be affected by cleaning

git clean -fdn

This will show you the list of files that will be deleted. Now to actually delete those files use this command:

git clean -fd

Subtilize

Answer 25

uggested Command for Removing Untracked Files from git docs is git clean

git clean - Remove untracked files from the working tree

Suggested Method: Interative Mode by using git clean -i so we can have control over it. let see remaining available options.

Available Options:

git clean 
    -d -f -i -n -q -e -x -X (can use either)

Explanation:

1. -d

Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files. If an untracked directory is managed by a different Git repository, it is not removed by default. Use -f option twice if you really want to remove such a directory.

2. -f, --force

If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set to false, git clean will refuse to run unless given -f, -n or -i.

3. -i, --interactive

Show what would be done and clean files interactively. See “Interactive mode” for details.

4. -n, --dry-run

Don’t actually remove anything, just show what would be done.

5. -q, --quiet

Be quiet, only report errors, but not the files that are successfully removed.

6. -e , --exclude=

In addition to those found in .gitignore (per directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, also consider these patterns to be in the set of the ignore rules in effect.

7. -x

Don’t use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore rules given with -e options. This allows removing all untracked files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in conjunction with git reset) to create a pristine working directory to test a clean build.

8. -X

Remove only files ignored by Git. This may be useful to rebuild everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.

Sanburn

I think you have a typo uggested but that's just a "uggestion lol – Crease

Answer 26

git clean -f to remove untracked files from working directory.

I have covered some basics here in my blog, git-intro-basic-commands

Perbunan

Answer 27

This is the way.

git add .
git stash 

For more information https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/saving-changes/git-stash#stashing-your-work

Penner

There's a lot of wisdom in this answer. – Taliataliaferro

Answer 28

Normal git clean command doesn't remove untracked files with my git version 2.9.0.windows.1.

$ git clean -fdx     # doesn't remove untracked files
$ git clean -fdx *   # Append star then it works!

Harney

Answer 29

We can easily removed local untracked files from the current git working tree by using below git comments.

git reset [--soft | --mixed [-N] | --hard | --merge | --keep] [-q] [<commit>]

Example:

git reset --hard HEAD

Links :

1. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-reset
2. How do I use 'git reset --hard HEAD' to revert to a previous commit?
3. Reset local repository branch to be just like remote repository HEAD
4. https://jwiegley.github.io/git-from-the-bottom-up/3-Reset/4-doing-a-hard-reset.html

Lumbar

This will also remove changes staged for commit, not only untracked files, which may not be what you want. – Mensural

Doesn't work: leaves some files. git clean -ffdx is the solution – Juta

Answer 30

Clean out git repository and all submodules recursively

The following command will clean out the current git repository and all its submodules recursively:

(git clean -d -x -f && git submodule foreach --recursive git clean -d -x -f)

Flagellum

surely this should be used with great caution – Crease

Answer 31

oh-my-zsh with zsh provides those great aliases via the git plugin. They can be used in bash as well.

gclean='git clean -fd'
gpristine='git reset --hard && git clean -dfx'

• gclean removes untracked directories in addition to untracked files.
• gpristine hard reset the local changes, remove untracked directories, untracked files and don't use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore rules given with -e options. This allows removing all untracked files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in conjunction with git reset) to create a pristine working directory to test a clean build.

Antigorite

Thanks for you feedback, my statement was confusing. I wanted to say that the highlighted aliases come automatically with oh-my-zsh. They obviously work great in bash. I edited my answer to reflect that. – Abbevillian

Answer 32

To remove complete changes git clean -f -d

$ git clean -f -d
Removing client/app/helpers/base64.js
Removing files/
Removing package.json.bak

where 
-f is force 
-d is a directory 

Shanley

Answer 33

git clean -f

will remove the untracked files from the current git

git clean -fd

when you want to remove directories and files, this will delete only untracked directories and files

Spalding

Answer 34

Note: First navigate to the directory and checkout the branch you want to clean.

-i interactive mode and it will tell you what will be removed and you can choose an action from the list.

1. To clean files only [Folders will not be listed and will not be cleaned]: $ git clean -i

2. To clean files and folders: $ git clean -d -i

-d including directories.

---

If you choose c from the list. The files/folders will be deleted that are not tracked and will also remove files/folders that you mess-up.*

For instance: If you restructure the folder in your remote and pull the changes to your local computer. files/folders that are created by others initially will be in past folder and in the new one that you restructure.

Vaenfila

Answer 35

I like to use git stash command, later you can get stashed files and changes. git clean is also a good option but totally depends on your requirement. here is the explanation of git stash and git clean,7.3 Git Tools - Stashing and Cleaning

Eelpout

Answer 36

I haved failed using most popular answers here - git doesn't delete untracked files from the repository anyway. No idea why. This is my super simplified answer without SPECIAL GIT COMMANDS!

Mission: delete untracked files from git repository:

1. Move files and folders elsewhere from your local project folder for a while
2. Delete all lines in .gitignore about these files and folders for the commit
3. Git add .
4. Git commit -m “Cleaning repository from untracked files”
5. Git push

All files and folders has been deleted from the repository.

Lets restore them on localhost if you need them:

1. Move back all files and folders you have moved temporary to the local project folder again
2. Move back all lines about these files and folders to .gitignore
3. Git add .
4. Git commit -m “Checking or files not appearing again in git repository”
5. Git push

You are done!

Illbred

Answer 37

If nothing else works, to simply remove all the changes listed by the "git status" command one can use the following combo:

git add -A && git commit -m temp && git reset --hard HEAD^

This will first stage all of your changes then create a temporary commit and then discard it.

Palocz

Answer 38

usage: git clean [-d] [-f] [-i] [-n] [-q] [-e ] [-x | -X] [--] ...

-q, --quiet           do not print names of files removed
-n, --dry-run         dry run
-f, --force           force
-i, --interactive     interactive cleaning
-d                    remove whole directories
-e, --exclude <pattern>
                      add <pattern> to ignore rules
-x                    remove ignored files, too
-X                    remove only ignored files

Twana

Exclude was the thing I needed. I wanted to clean everything except one file. – Corinacorine

Answer 39

Here's something from https://mcmap.net/q/11479/-how-do-i-clear-my-local-working-directory-in-git-duplicate to a question which linked here as a duplicate. I found this very useful for an LFS-related issue where none of git reset --hard or git clean -df or git restore --staged . resolved things.

## create a stand-alone, tagged, empty commit
true | git mktree | xargs git commit-tree | xargs git tag empty

## clear the working copy
git checkout empty

## go back to where you were before
git checkout master (or whatever)

Edieedification

Answer 40

use git reset HEAD <file> to unstage a file

Aldaaldan

Answer 41

This can be done using a shell script, I use this scrtipt that lists what will be removed, then lets me confirm the operation.

This is useful since I sometimes have patches or other files I'd like to check on before wiping everything away.

#!/bin/bash
readarray -t -d '' FILES < <(git ls-files -z --other --directory)
if [ "$FILES" = "" ]; then
    echo  "Nothing to clean!"
    exit 0
fi
echo -e "Dirty files:\n"
printf '  %s\n' "${FILES[@]}"
DO_REMOVE=0
while true; do
    echo ""
    read -p "Remove ${#FILES[@]} files? [y/n]: " choice
    case "$choice" in
        y|Y )
            DO_REMOVE=1
            break ;;
        n|N )
            echo "Exiting!"
            break ;;
        * ) echo "Invalid input, expected [Y/y/N/n]"
            continue ;;
    esac
done

if [ "$DO_REMOVE" -eq 1 ];then
    echo "Removing!"
    for f in "${FILES[@]}"; do
        rm -rfv -- "$f"
    done
fi

Odisodium

Answer 42

I use this:

1. git status
2. copy the path of the file
3. rm <path of file>

My project has a lot of generated files created by a giant ANT build script. Using git clean would create chaos.

Apophysis