How to remove a file from the index in git

Question

How to remove a file from the index     staging area   cache  without removing it from the file system

User · Answer

According to my humble opinion and my work experience with git, staging area is not the same as index. I may be wrong of course, but as I said, my experience in using git and my logic tell me, that index is a structure that follows your changes to your working area(local repository) that are not excluded by ignoring settings and staging area is to keep files that are already confirmed to be committed, aka files in index on which add command was run on. You don't notice and realize that "slight" difference, because you use git commit -a -m "comment" adding indexed and cached files to stage area and committing in one command or using IDEs like IDEA for that too often. And cache is that what keeps changes in indexed files. If you want to remove file from index that has not been added to staging area before, options proposed before match for you, but... If you have done that already, you will need to use

Git restore --staged <file>

And, please, don't ask me where I was 10 years ago... I missed you, this answer is for further generations)

User · Answer

This should unstage a  lt file gt  for you  without removing or otherwise modifying the file    git reset  lt file gt

User · Answer

Only use git rm --cached  file  to remove a file from the index  git reset  lt filename gt  can be used to remove added files from the index given the files are never committed    git add First txt   git ls-files First txt   git commit -m  quot First quot       git ls-files             First txt   git reset First txt   git ls-files               First txt  NOTE  git reset First txt has no effect on index after the commit  Which brings me to the topic of git restore --staged  lt file gt   It can be used to  presumably after the first commit  remove added files from the index given the files are never committed    git add Second txt                 git status         On branch master Changes to be committed     use  quot git restore --staged  lt file gt     quot  to unstage      new file    Second txt   git ls-files        First txt Second txt   git restore --staged Second txt   git ls-files  First txt   git add Second txt    git commit -m  quot Second quot    git status             On branch master nothing to commit  working tree clean   git ls-files  First txt          Second txt Desktop Test  git restore --staged   Desktop Test  git ls-files First txt                    Second txt Desktop Test  git reset                       Desktop Test  git ls-files First txt Second txt   git rm --cached -r   rm  First txt  rm  Second txt    git ls-files    tl dr Look at last 15 lines  If you don t want to be confused with first commit  second commit  before commit  after commit     always use git rm --cached  file

User · Answer

Depending on your workflow  this may be the kind of thing that you need rarely enough that there s little point in trying to figure out a command-line solution  unless you happen to be working without a graphical interface for some reason    Just use one of the GUI-based tools that support index management  for example    git gui  lt -- uses the Tk windowing framework -- similar style to gitk git cola  lt -- a more modern-style GUI interface   These let you move files in and out of the index by point-and-click   They even have support for selecting and moving portions of a file  individual changes  to and from the index     How about a different perspective   If you mess up while using one of the suggested  rather cryptic  commands    git rm --cached  file  git reset HEAD  lt file gt       you stand a real chance of losing data -- or at least making it hard to find   Unless you really need to do this with very high frequency  using a GUI tool is likely to be safer     Working without the index  Based on the comments and votes  I ve come to realize that a lot of people  use the index all the time   I don t   Here s how    Commit my entire working copy  the typical case   git commit -a Commit just a few files  git commit  list of files  Commit all but a few modified files  git commit -a then amend via git gui Graphically review all changes to working copy  git difftool --dir-diff --tool meld

User · Answer

You want   git rm --cached  file    If you omit the --cached option  it will also delete it from the working tree  git rm is slightly safer than git reset  because you ll be warned if the staged content doesn t match either the tip of the branch or the file on disk   If it doesn t  you have to add --force

User · Answer

git reset HEAD  lt file gt     for removing a particular file from the index   and   git reset HEAD   for removing all indexed files

[git] How to remove a file from the index in git?

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