How to make Git forget about a file that was tracked but is now in gitignore

Question

There is a file that was being tracked by git  but now the file is on the  gitignore list   However  that file keeps showing up in git status after it s edited  How do you force git to completely forget about it

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If you cannot git rm a tracked file because other people might need it  warning  even if you git rm --cached  when someone else gets this change  their files will be deleted in their filesystem    These are often done due to config file overrides  authentication credentials  etc  Please look at https   gist github com 1423106 for ways people have worked around the problem   To summarize    Have your application look for an ignored file config-overide ini and use that over the committed file config ini  or alternately  look for    config myapp ini  or  MYCONFIGFILE  Commit file config-sample ini and ignore file config ini  have a script or similar copy the file as necessary if necessary  Try to use gitattributes clean smudge magic to apply and remove the changes for you  for instance smudge the config file as a checkout from an alternate branch and clean the config file as a checkout from HEAD   This is tricky stuff  I don t recommend it for the novice user  Keep the config file on a deploy branch dedicated to it that is never merged to master   When you want to deploy compile test you merge to that branch and get that file   This is essentially the smudge clean approach except using human merge policies and extra-git modules  Anti-recommentation  Don t use assume-unchanged  it will only end in tears  because having git lie to itself will cause bad things to happen  like your change being lost forever

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What didn t work for me  Under Linux   I wanted to use the posts here suggesting the ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs git rm -r --cached approach   However   some of  the files to be removed had an embedded newline LF  n in their names   Neither of the solutions  git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -d quot  n quot  git rm --cached git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard   sed  s     quot  amp  quot      xargs git rm -r --cached  cope with this situation  get errors about files not found   So I offer git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -0 git rm -r --cached git commit -am  quot Remove ignored files quot   This uses the -z argument to ls-files  and the -0 argument to xargs to cater safely correctly for  quot nasty quot  characters in filenames  In the manual page git-ls-files 1   it states   When -z option is not used  TAB  LF  and backslash characters in pathnames are represented as  t   n  and     respectively   so I think my solution is needed if filenames have any of these characters in them

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Do the following steps for file folder  Remove File   need to add that file to  gitignore  need to remove that file using the command  git rm --cached file name   need to run  git add     need to  commit -m   quot file removed quot   and finally   git push    For example  I want to delete test txt file  I accidentally pushed to GitHub want to remove commands will be followed as  1st add test txt in  gitignore git rm --cached test txt git add   git commit -m  quot test txt removed quot  git push  Remove Folder   need to add that folder to  gitignore  need to remove that folder using the command  git rm -r --cached folder name   need to run  git add     need to  commit -m   quot folder removed quot   and finally   git push    For example  I want to delete the  idea folder dir  I accidentally pushed to GitHub want to remove commands will be followed as  1st add  idea in  gitignore git rm -r --cached  idea git add   git commit -m  quot  idea removed quot  git push

User · Answer

Do the following steps serially you will be fine   1 remove the mistakenly added files from the directory storage  You can use  rm -r  for linux  command or delete them by browsing the directories  Or move them to another location on your PC  You maybe need to close the IDE if running for moving removing   2 add the files   directories to gitignore file now and save it   3 now remove them from git cache by using these commands  if there are more than one directory  remove them one by one by repeatedly issuing this command   git rm -r --cached path-to-those-files   4 now do a commit and push  use these commands  This will remove those files from git remote and make git stop tracking those files   git add   git commit -m  removed unnecessary files from git  git push origin

User · Answer

In my case here  I had several  lock files in several directories that I needed to remove  I ran the following and it worked without having to go into each directory to remove them   git rm -r --cached      lock   Doing this went into each folder under the  root  of where I was at and excluded all files that matched the pattern   Hope this helps others

User · Answer

git update-index does the job for me  git update-index --assume-unchanged  lt file gt   Note  This solution is actually independent on  gitignore as gitignore is only for untracked files   Update  a better option Since this answer was posted  a new option has been created and that should be preferred   You should use --skip-worktree which is for modified tracked files that the user don t want to commit anymore and keep --assume-unchanged for performance to prevent git to check status of big tracked files  See https   stackoverflow com a 13631525 717372 for more details    git update-index --skip-worktree  lt file gt

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If you don t want to use the CLI and are working on Windows  a very simple solution is to use TortoiseGit  it has the  Delete  keep local   Action in the menu which works fine

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The BFG is specifically designed for removing unwanted data like big files or passwords from Git repos  so it has a simple flag that will remove any large historical  not-in-your-current-commit  files   --strip-blobs-bigger-than     java -jar bfg jar --strip-blobs-bigger-than 100M   If you d like to specify files by name  you can do that too     java -jar bfg jar --delete-files   mp4   The BFG is 10-1000x faster than git filter-branch  and generally much easier to use - check the full usage instructions and examples for more details   Source  https   confluence atlassian com bitbucket reduce-repository-size-321848262 html

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I think  that maybe git can t totally forget about file because of its conception  section  Snapshots  Not Differences     This problem is absent  for example  when using CVS  CVS stores information as a list of file-based changes  Information for CVS is a set of files and the changes made to each file over time   But in Git every time you commit  or save the state of your project  it basically takes a picture of what all your files look like at that moment and stores a reference to that snapshot  So  if you added file once  it will always be present  in that snapshot   These 2 articles were helpful for me   git assume-unchanged vs skip-worktree  and How to ignore changes in tracked files with Git  Basing on it I do the following  if file is already tracked   git update-index --skip-worktree  lt file gt    From this moment all local changes in this file will be ignored and will not go to remote  If file is changed on remote  conflict will occure  when git pull  Stash won t work  To resolve it  copy file content to the safe place and follow these steps   git update-index --no-skip-worktree  lt file gt  git stash git pull    File content will be replaced by the remote content  Paste your changes from safe place to file and perform again   git update-index --skip-worktree  lt file gt    If everyone  who works with project  will perform git update-index --skip-worktree  lt file gt   problems with pull should be absent  This solution is OK for configurations files  when every developer has their own project configuration   It is not very convenient to do this every time  when file has been changed on remote  but can protect it from overwriting by remote content

User · Answer

Move or copy the file to a safe location  so you don t lose it  Then git rm the file and commit  The file will still show up if you revert to one of those earlier commits  or another branch where it has not been removed  However  in all future commits  you will not see the file again  If the file is in the git ignore  then you can move it back into the folder  and git won t see it

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In case of already committed DS Store   find   -name  DS Store -print0   xargs -0 git rm --ignore-unmatch   Ignore them by   echo   DS Store   gt  gt     gitignore global echo     DS Store   gt  gt     gitignore global echo      DS Store   gt  gt     gitignore global echo        DS Store   gt  gt     gitignore global git config --global core excludesfile    gitignore global   Finally  make a commit

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Use this when   1  You want to untrack a lot of files  or  2  You updated your gitignore file     Source link  http   www codeblocq com 2016 01 Untrack-files-already-added-to-git-repository-based-on-gitignore    Let   s say you have already added committed some files to your git repository and you then add them to your  gitignore  these files will still be present in your repository index  This article we will see how to get rid of them   Step 1  Commit all your changes  Before proceeding  make sure all your changes are committed  including your  gitignore file   Step 2  Remove everything from the repository  To clear your repo  use   git rm -r --cached      rm is the remove command -r will allow recursive removal    cached will only remove files from the index  Your files will still be there    The rm command can be unforgiving  If you wish to try what it does beforehand  add the -n or --dry-run flag to test things out   Step 3  Re add everything  git add     Step 4  Commit  git commit -m   gitignore fix    Your repository is clean     Push the changes to your remote to see the changes effective there as well

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Using the git rm --cached command does not answer the original question      How do you force git to completely forget about  a file     In fact  this solution will cause the file to be deleted in every other instance of the repository when executing a git pull   The correct way to force git to forget about a file is documented by GitHub here   I recommend reading the documentation  but basically   git fetch --all git filter-branch --force --index-filter  git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch full path to file  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all git push origin --force --all git push origin --force --tags git for-each-ref --format  delete   refname   refs original   git update-ref --stdin git reflog expire --expire now --all git gc --prune now   just replace full path to file with the full path of the file  Make sure you ve added the file to your  gitignore   You ll also need to  temporarily  allow non-fast-forward pushes to your repository  since you re changing your git history

User · Answer

I liked JonBrave s answer but I have messy enough working directories that commit -a scares me a bit  so here s what I ve done   git config --global alias exclude-ignored   git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -0 git rm -r --cached  amp  amp   git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -0 git stage  amp  amp   git stage  gitignore  amp  amp  git commit -m  new gitignore and remove ignored files from index    breaking it down   git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -0 git rm -r --cached  git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -0 git stage  git stage  gitignore  git commit -m  new gitignore and remove ignored files from index     remove ignored files from index stage  gitignore and the files you just removed commit

User · Answer

Update your  gitignore file     for instance  add a folder you don t want to track to  gitignore  git rm -r --cached       Remove all tracked files  including wanted and unwanted  Your code will be safe as long as you have saved locally  git add       All files will be added back in  except those in  gitignore      Hat tip to  AkiraYamamoto for pointing us in the right direction

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This is no longer an issue in the latest git  v2 17 1 at the time of writing    The  gitignore finally ignores tracked-but-deleted files  You can test this for yourself by running the following script  The final git status statement should report  nothing to commit      Create empty repo mkdir gitignore-test cd gitignore-test git init    Create a file and commit it echo  hello   gt  file git add file git commit -m initial    Add the file to gitignore and commit echo  file   gt   gitignore git add  gitignore git commit -m gitignore    Remove the file and commit git rm file git commit -m  removed file     Reintroduce the file and check status     gitignore is now respected - status reports  nothing to commit   echo  hello   gt  file git status

User · Answer

git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard -z   xargs -0 git rm --cached git commit -am  Remove ignored files    This takes the list of the ignored files and removes them from the index  then commits the changes

User · Answer

move it out  commit  then move it back in  This has worked for me in the past  There is probably a  gittier  way to accomplish this

User · Answer

I accomplished this by using git filter-branch  The exact command I used was taken from the man page   WARNING  this will delete the file from your entire history  git filter-branch --index-filter  git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch filename  HEAD   This command will recreate the entire commit history  executing git rm before each commit and so will get rid of the specified file  Don t forget to back it up before running the command as it will be lost

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Especially for the IDE based files  I use this   For instance the slnx sqlite  I just got rid off it completely like following   git rm  PATH OF THE FILE  slnx sqlite -f git commit -m  remove slnx sqlite    Just keep that in mind that some of those files stores some local user settings and preferences for projects  like what files you had open   So every time you navigate or do some changes in your IDE  that file is changed and therefore it checks it out and show as there are uncommitted changes

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If anyone having hard time on Windows and you wanna ignore entire folder   cd  to desired the  folder  and do  Git Bash Here    git ls-files -z   xargs -0 git update-index --assume-unchanged

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The answer from Matt Fear was the most effective IMHO  The following is just a PowerShell script for those in windows to only remove files from their git repo that matches their exclusion list     Get files matching exclusionsfrom  gitignore   Excluding comments and empty lines  ignoreFiles    gc  gitignore        -notmatch               -match    S                              ignore                                       gci -r -i  ignore  FullName                    ignoreFiles    ignoreFiles       -match    S      Remove each of these file from Git   ignoreFiles       git rm      git add

User · Answer

gitignore will prevent untracked files from being added  without an add -f  to the set of files tracked by git  however git will continue to track any files that are already being tracked   To stop tracking a file you need to remove it from the index  This can be achieved with this command   git rm --cached  lt file gt    If you want to remove a whole folder  you need to remove all files in it recursively   git rm -r --cached  lt folder gt    The removal of the file from the head revision will happen on the next commit   WARNING  While this will not remove the physical file from your local  it will remove the files from other developers machines on next git pull

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The accepted answer does not  quot make Git  quot forget quot  about a file    quot   historically    It only makes git ignore the file in the present future  This method makes git completely forget ignored files  past present future   but does not delete anything from working directory  even when re-pulled from remote   This method requires usage of   git info exclude  preferred  OR a pre-existing  gitignore in all the commits that have files to be ignored forgotten  1 All methods of enforcing git ignore behavior after-the-fact effectively re-write history and thus have significant ramifications for any public shared collaborative repos that might be pulled after this process  2 General advice  start with a clean repo - everything committed  nothing pending in working directory or index  and make a backup  Also  the comments revision history of this answer  and revision history of this question  may be useful enlightening    commit up-to-date  gitignore  if not already existing   this command must be run on each branch  git add  gitignore git commit -m  quot Create  gitignore quot    apply standard git ignore behavior only to current index  not working directory  --cached   if this command returns nothing  ensure   git info exclude AND OR  gitignore exist  this command must be run on each branch  git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -0 git rm --cached   Commit to prevent working directory data loss   this commit will be automatically deleted by the --prune-empty flag in the following command  this command must be run on each branch  git commit -m  quot ignored index quot    Apply standard git ignore behavior RETROACTIVELY to all commits from all branches  --all   This step WILL delete ignored files from working directory UNLESS they have been dereferenced from the index by the commit above  This step will also delete any  quot empty quot  commits   If deliberate  quot empty quot  commits should be kept  remove --prune-empty and instead run git reset HEAD  immediately after this command  git filter-branch --tree-filter  git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard   xargs -0 git rm -f --ignore-unmatch  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all   List all still-existing files that are now ignored properly  if this command returns nothing  it s time to restore from backup and start over  this command must be run on each branch  git ls-files --other --ignored --exclude-standard   Finally  follow the rest of this GitHub guide  starting at step 6  which includes important warnings information about the commands below  git push origin --force --all git push origin --force --tags git for-each-ref --format  quot delete   refname  quot  refs original   git update-ref --stdin git reflog expire --expire now --all git gc --prune now   Other devs that pull from now-modified remote repo should make a backup and then   fetch modified remote  git fetch --all    quot Pull quot  changes WITHOUT deleting newly-ignored files from working directory  This will overwrite local tracked files with remote - ensure any local modifications are backed-up stashed  git reset FETCH HEAD   Footnotes 1 Because   git info exclude can be applied to all historical commits using the instructions above  perhaps details about getting a  gitignore file into the historical commit s  that need it is beyond the scope of this answer   I wanted a proper  gitignore to be in the root commit  as if it was the first thing I did   Others may not care since   git info exclude can accomplish the same thing regardless where the  gitignore exists in the commit history  and clearly re-writing history is a very touchy subject  even when aware of the ramifications  FWIW  potential methods may include git rebase or a git filter-branch that copies an external  gitignore into each commit  like the answers to this question 2 Enforcing git ignore behavior after-the-fact by committing the results of a standalone git rm --cached command may result in newly-ignored file deletion in future pulls from the force-pushed remote  The --prune-empty flag in the following git filter-branch command avoids this problem by automatically removing the previous  quot delete all ignored files quot  index-only commit   Re-writing git history also changes commit hashes  which will wreak havoc on future pulls from public shared collaborative repos   Please understand the ramifications fully before doing this to such a repo  This GitHub guide specifies the following   Tell your collaborators to rebase  not merge  any branches they created off of your old  tainted  repository history  One merge commit could reintroduce some or all of the tainted history that you just went to the trouble of purging   Alternative solutions that do not affect the remote repo are git update-index --assume-unchanged  lt  path file gt  or git update-index --skip-worktree  lt file gt   examples of which can be found here

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The series of commands below will remove all of the items from the Git Index  not from the working directory or local repo   and then updates the Git Index  while respecting git ignores  PS  Index   Cache  First   git rm -r --cached    git add     Then   git commit -am  Remove ignored files      Or one-liner   git rm -r --cached    amp  amp  git add    amp  amp  git commit -am  Remove ignored files

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The copy paste answer is git rm --cached -r    git add    git status  This command will ignore the files that have already been committed to a Git repository but now we have added them to  gitignore

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I always use this command to remove those untracked files   One-line  Unix-style  clean output   git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard   sed  s      amp       xargs git rm -r --cached   It lists all your ignored files  replace every output line with a quoted line instead to handle paths with spaces inside  and pass everything to git rm -r --cached to remove the paths files dirs from the index

[git] How to make Git "forget" about a file that was tracked but is now in .gitignore?

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