Remove files from Git commit

Question

I am using Git and I have committed few files using   git commit -a   Later  I found that a file had mistakenly been added to the commit   How can I remove a file from the last commit

User · Answer

if you dont push your changes to git yet

git reset --soft HEAD~1

It will reset all the changes and revert to one commit back

If this is the last commit you made and you want to delete the file from local and remote repository try this :

git rm <file>
 git commit --amend

or even better :

reset first

git reset --soft HEAD~1

reset the unwanted file

git reset HEAD path/to/unwanted_file

commit again

git commit -c ORIG_HEAD

User · Answer

Existing answers are all talking about removing the unwanted files from the last commit   If you want to remove unwanted files from an old commit  even pushed  and don t want to create a new commit  which is unnecessary  because of the action   1   Find the commit that you want the file to conform to   git checkout  lt commit id gt   lt path to file gt    you can do this multiple times if you want to remove many files   2   git commit -am  remove unwanted files    3   Find the commit id of the commit on which the files were added mistakenly  let s say  35c23c2  here  git rebase 35c23c2 1 -i     notice    1  is necessary   This command opens the editor according to your settings  The default one is vim   Move the  last commit  which should be  remove unwanted files   to the next line of the incorrect commit  35c23c2  in our case   and set the command as fixup   pick 35c23c2 the first commit fixup 0d78b28 remove unwanted files   You should be good after saving the file   To finish     git push -f   If you unfortunately get conflicts  you have to solve them manually

User · Answer

git reset --soft HEAD  winds back your commit  and when you type git status  it tells you what to do   Changes to be committed     use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage

User · Answer

If you re using GitHub and haven t yet pushed the commit  GitHub Desktop solves this problem easily    Choose Repository -  Undo Most Recent Commit Unselect the file that you mistakenly added  Your previous commit message will be in the dialog box already  Press the Commit button

User · Answer

I will explain to you with example  Let A  B  C be 3 successive commits  Commit B contains a file that should not have been committed   git log    take A commit id git rebase -i  A commit ID    do an interactive rebase change commit to  e  in rebase vim   means commit will be edited git rm unwanted file git rebase --continue git push --force-with-lease  lt branchName gt

User · Answer

This is worked for me to remove the file from bit bucket repo which I pushed the file to branch initially   git checkout origin develop  lt path-to-file gt  git add  lt path-to-file gt  git commit -m  Message  git push

User · Answer

Here is the step to remove files from Git Commit    gt git reset --soft HEAD 1 either commitid   -- now files moved to the staging area   gt git rm --cached filename it will removed the file from staging area   gt git commit -m  meaningfull message  Now commit the required files

User · Answer

git rm --cached  lt file to remove from commit  lt commit id gt  which added file gt  git commit -m  removed unwanted file from git    will leave you the local file still  If you don t want the file locally either  you can skip the --cached option   If all work is on your local branch  you need to keep the file in a later commit  and like having a clean history  I think a simpler way to do this could be   git rm --cached  lt file to remove from commit  lt commit id gt  which added file gt  git commit --squash  lt commit id gt  git add  lt file to remove from commit  lt commit id gt  which added file gt  git commit -m  brand new file   git rebase --interactive  lt commit id gt     and you can then finish the rebase with ease without having to remember more complex commands or commit message or type as much

User · Answer

If for any reason  as it was in my case  you ll have trouble reseting all files from the last commit - as in git reset --soft HEAD  - and your case mets the following conditions  you can do as I explain below   the file you are trying to remove already existed in repository before the last commit you can undo all changes in the file since the previous commit  HEAD 2 - the commit just before the last commit   You can then undo all the changes since the previous commit  HEAD 2   save the file  stage it  git add filename  and then run git commit --amend --no-edit  This will commit the  quot new changes quot  - which is actually recommitting the file to the last commit as it was before the last commit

User · Answer

git checkout HEAD  path to file git commit --amend

User · Answer

I copied the current files in a different folder  then get rid of all unpushed changes by   git reset --hard   u    Then copy things back  Commit  Push

User · Answer

git reset --soft HEAD 1    This will undo the last commit in local repos and move everything back to stage area like before doing the commit  Then just use any Git UI tool as normal  like TortoiseGit  Git UI  Git Extensions     to unstage the files that we do not want to commit then do the commit again

User · Answer

You can simply use this command   git restore --staged  lt file gt

User · Answer

I think other answers here are wrong  because this is a question of moving the mistakenly committed files back to the staging area from the previous commit  without cancelling the changes done to them  This can be done like Paritosh Singh suggested   git reset --soft HEAD     or  git reset --soft HEAD 1   Then reset the unwanted files in order to leave them out from the commit   git reset HEAD path to unwanted file   Now commit again  you can even re-use the same commit message   git commit -c ORIG HEAD

User · Answer

None of the answers at this time are reasonable  Sounds like there is enough demand that a real solution should be proposed  https   github com git git blob master Documentation SubmittingPatches     git --uncommit  lt file name gt    would be nice  I get that we do not want to modify history  but if I am local and accidentally added local  hack  file and want to remove it from the commit this would be super helpful

User · Answer

Do a sequence of the following commands         to remove the last commit  but preserve changes   git reset --soft HEAD 1    to remove unneded file from the staging area   git reset HEAD   lt your file gt       finally make a new commit   git commit -m  Your message

User · Answer

ATTENTION  If you only want to remove a file from your previous commit  and keep it on disk  read juzzlin s answer just above   If this is your last commit and you want to completely delete the file from your local and the remote repository  you can     remove the file git rm  lt file gt  commit with amend flag  git commit --amend   The amend flag tells git to commit again  but  merge   not in the sense of merging two branches  this commit with the last commit   As stated in the comments  using git rm here is like using the rm command itself

User · Answer

Another approach that we can do is to    Delete the file Make a new commit with the deleted file Do an interactive rebase and squash both commits Push

User · Answer

If you dont need that file anymore  you could do   git rm file git commit --amend git push origin branch

User · Answer

Something that worked for me  but still think there should be a better solution     git revert  lt commit id gt    git reset HEAD 1 --hard   Just leave the change you want to discard in the other commit  check others out    git commit --amend    or stash and rebase to  lt commit id gt  to amend changes

User · Answer

If you want to preserve your commit  maybe you already spent some time writing a detailed commit message and don t want to lose it   and you only want to remove the file from the commit  but not from the repository entirely   git checkout origin  lt remote-branch gt   lt filename gt  git commit --amend

User · Answer

You can simply try   git reset --soft HEAD 1   and create a new commit   However  there is an awesome software  gitkraken   which makes it easy to work with git

User · Answer

Using git GUI can simplify removing a file from the prior commit   Assuming that this isn t a shared branch and you don t mind rewriting history  then run   git gui citool --amend   You can un-check the file that was mistakenly committed and then click  Commit      The file is removed from the commit  but will be kept on disk   So if you un-checked the file after mistakenly adding it  it will show in your untracked files list  and if you un-checked the file after mistakenly modifying it it will show in your changes not staged for commit list

User · Answer

Actually  I think a quicker and easier way is to use git rebase interactive mode   git rebase -i head 1      or head 4  how ever far you want to go   and then  instead of  pick   use  edit   I did not realize how powerful  edit  is   https   www youtube com watch v 2dQosJaLN18  Hope you will find it helpful

User · Answer

Now that Apple has non-cosensually updated all MacOS users to zsh  the correct answer doesn t work anymore  git reset --soft HEAD  zsh  no matches found  HEAD   You can prevent the shell from treating the   as a special character by single quoting it  git reset --soft  HEAD    Alternatively you can disable this behavior in your shell  by updating your    zshrc with unsetopt nomatch

User · Answer

Just wanted to complement the top answer as I had to run an extra command   git reset --soft HEAD  git checkout origin master  lt filepath gt    Cheers

User · Answer

Removing the file using rm will delete it   You re always adding to a commit in git rather than removing  so in this instance return the file to the state it was in prior to the first commit  this may be a delete  rm  action if the file is new  and then re-commit and the file will go   To return the file to some previous state       git checkout  lt commit id gt   lt path to file gt    or to return it to the state at the remote HEAD       git checkout origin master  lt path to file gt    then amend the commit and you should find the file has disappeared from the list  and not deleted from your disk

User · Answer

If you have not pushed the changes on the server you can use  git reset --soft HEAD 1   It will reset all the changes and revert to one  commit back  If you have pushed your changes then follow steps as answered by  CharlesB

User · Answer

The following will unstage just the file you intended  which is what the OP asked   git reset HEAD   path to file   You ll see something like the following        Changes to be committed     use  git reset HEAD      to unstage       modified     path to file      Changes not staged for commit     use  git add      to update   what will be committed     use  git checkout --      to discard   changes in working directory       modified     path to file     Changes to be committed  is the previous version of the file before the commit   This will look like a deletion if the file never existed   If you commit this change  there will be a revision that reverts the change to the file in your branch   Changes not staged for commit  is the change you committed  and the current state of the file   At this point  you can do whatever you like to the file  such as resetting to a different version     When you re ready to commit   git commit --amend -a   or  if you ve got some other changes going on that you don t want to commit  yet   git commit add  path to file git commit --amend

User · Answer

If you want to remove files from previous commits use filters  git filter-branch --prune-empty --index-filter  git rm --ignore-unmatch --cached  file to be removed dmg     If you see this error   Cannot create a new backup  A previous backup already exists in refs original  Force overwriting the backup with -f  Just remove refs backups on your local repo    rm -rf  git refs original refs

User · Answer

Had the same issue where I have changes in a local branch where I wanted to revert just one file  What worked for me was -   feature target branch below is where I have all my changes including those I wanted to undo for a specific file    origin feature target branch is the remote branch where I want to push my changes to    feature staging is my temporary staging branch where I will be pushing from all my wanted changes excluding the change to that one file    Create a local branch from my origin feature target branch - called it feature staging Merged my working local branch feature target branch  to the feature staging branch Checked out feature staging then git reset --soft ORIG HEAD  Now all changes from the feature staging  will be staged but uncommitted   Unstaged the file which I have previously checked in with unnecessary changes Changed the upstream branch for feature staging to  origin feature target branch Committed the rest of the staged changes and pushed upstream to my remote origin feature target branch

User · Answer

As the accepted answer indicates  you can do this by resetting the entire commit  But this is a rather heavy handed approach  A cleaner way to do this would be to keep the commit  and simply remove the changed files from it   git reset HEAD  -- path to file git commit --amend --no-edit   The git reset will take the file as it was in the previous commit  and stage it in the index  The file in the working directory is untouched  The git commit will then commit and squash the index into the current commit   This essentially takes the version of the file that was in the previous commit and adds it to the current commit  This results in no net change  and so the file is effectively removed from the commit

[git] Remove files from Git commit

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