How do I clear my local working directory in Git

Question

How can I clear my working directory in Git

User · Accepted Answer

To reset a specific file to the last-committed state (to discard uncommitted changes in a specific file):

git checkout thefiletoreset.txt

This is mentioned in the git status output:

(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)

To reset the entire repository to the last committed state:

git reset --hard

To remove untracked files, I usually just delete all files in the working copy (but not the .git/ folder!), then do git reset --hard which leaves it with only committed files.

A better way is to use git clean (warning: using the -x flag as below will cause Git to delete ignored files):

git clean -d -x -f

will remove untracked files, including directories (-d) and files ignored by git (-x). 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.

Relevant links:

git-reset man page
git-clean man page
git ready "cleaning up untracked files" (as Marko posted)
Stack Overflow question "How to remove local (untracked) files from the current Git working tree")

User · Answer

To reset a specific file as git status suggests   git checkout  lt filename gt    To reset a folder   git checkout  lt foldername gt

User · Answer

To switch to another branch  discarding all uncommitted changes  e g  resulting from Git s strange handling of line endings    git checkout -f  lt branchname gt    I had a working copy with hundreds of changed files  but empty git diff --ignore-space-at-eol  which I couldn t get rid off with any of the commands I read here  and git checkout  lt branchname gt  won t work  either - unless given the -f  or --force  option

User · Answer

You could create a commit which contains an empty working copy   This is a generally safe  non-destructive approach because it does not involve the use of any brute-force reset mechanisms   First you hide all managed content with git checkout empty  then you are free to manually review and remove whatever unmanaged content remains      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   Your working copy should now be clear of any managed content   All that remains are unmanaged files and the  git folder itself   To re-populate your working copy     git checkout master    or whatever branch you will be using     If you re a forward thinking individual  you might start your repository off on the right foot by basing everything on an initial empty commit     git init git commit --allow-empty --allow-empty-message -m    git tag empty         There are various uses for a tagged empty worktree   My favorite at the moment is to depopulate the root under a set of git worktree subfolders

User · Answer

All the answers so far retain local commits   If you re really serious  you can discard all local commits and all local edits by doing   git reset --hard origin branchname   For example   git reset --hard origin master   This makes your local repository exactly match the state of the origin  other than untracked files    If you accidentally did this after just reading the command  and not what it does     use git reflog to find your old commits

User · Answer

Use   git clean -df   It s not well advertised  but git clean is really handy  Git Ready has a nice introduction to git clean

[git] How do I clear my local working directory in Git?

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