Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have already been deleted from disk

Question

I have a Git repo that I have deleted four files from using rm  not git rm   and my Git status looks like this        deleted     file1 txt      deleted     file2 txt      deleted     file3 txt      deleted     file4 txt   How do I remove these files from Git without having to manually go through and add each file like this   git rm file1 file2 file3 file4   Ideally  I m looking for something that works in the same way that git add   does  if that s possible

User · Answer

By using git-add with  --all  or  --update  options you may get more than you wanted  New and or modified files will also be added to the index  I have a bash alias setup for when I want to remove deleted files from git without touching other files   alias grma  git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm    All files that have been removed from the file system are added to the index as deleted

User · Answer

git ls-files --deleted   xargs git rm    is the best option to add only deleted files   Here is some other options   git add      gt  Add all  tracked and modified  new files in the working tree   git add -u   gt  Add all modified removed files which are tracked   git add -A   gt  Add all  tracked and modified   tracked and removed  new files in the working tree   git commit -a -m  commit message  - Add and commit modified removed files which are tracked

User · Answer

To stage only the deleted files   for x in   git status   grep deleted   awk   print  2     do git rm  x  done   Or  the xargs way    git status   awk   deleted   print  2     xargs git rm   You can alias your preferred command set for convenient later use

User · Answer

git add -u  -u --update Only match  against already tracked files in the index rather than the working tree  That means that it will never stage new files  but that it will stage modified new contents of tracked files and that it will remove files from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree have been removed   If no  is given  default to      in other words  update all tracked files in the current directory and its subdirectories

User · Answer

something like   git status   sed -s  s    deleted        xargs git rm    may do it

User · Answer

By using git-add with  --all  or  --update  options you may get more than you wanted  New and or modified files will also be added to the index  I have a bash alias setup for when I want to remove deleted files from git without touching other files   alias grma  git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm    All files that have been removed from the file system are added to the index as deleted

User · Answer

git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm    might be what you are looking for   it works for me

User · Answer

Tell the command to automatically stage files that have been modified and deleted  but new files you have not told Git about are not affected        -a   --all   git add    amp  amp  git commit -m -a  Your commit    or   git add --all  amp  amp  git commit -m  Your commit

User · Answer

You re probably looking for -A   git add -A   this is similar to git add -u  but also adds new files   This is roughly the equivalent of hg s addremove command  although the move detection is automatic

User · Answer

None of the flags to git-add will only stage removed files  if all you have modified are deleted files  then you re fine  but otherwise  you need to run git-status and parse the output   Working off of Jeremy s answer  this is what I got   git status    sed -s  s    deleted        grep        commit    -v   xargs git rm    Get status of files  For deleted files  isolate the name of the file  Remove all the lines that start with  s  as well as a status line that had the word  deleted  in it  I don t remember what it was  exactly  and it s not there any longer  so you may have to modify this for different situations   I think grouping of expressions might be a GNU-specific feature  so if you re not using gnutils  you may have to add multiple grep -v lines  Pass the files to git rm    Sticking this in a shell alias now

User · Answer

You can use   git add -u   To add the deleted files to the staging area  then commit them  git commit -m  Deleted files manually

User · Answer

something like   git status   sed -s  s    deleted        xargs git rm    may do it

User · Answer

Just simply git add    amp  amp  git commit -m  quot the message for commit quot   amp  amp  git push

User · Answer

If those are the only changes  you can simply do  git commit -a   to commit all changes  That will include deleted files

User · Answer

As mentioned  git add -u   stages the removed files for deletion  BUT ALSO modified files for update   To unstage the modified files you can do  git reset HEAD  lt path gt    if you like to keep your commits organized and clean NOTE  This could also unstage the deleted files  so careful with those wildcards

User · Answer

git rm   git ls-files -d    Removes all files listed by the git ls-files command  -d show only deleted files   Doesn t work for files with spaces in the filename or path  but simple to remember

User · Answer

The most flexible solution I have found to date is to  git cola   And select all deleted files I want to stage     Note I usually do everything commandline in git  but git handles removed files a bit awkward

User · Answer

You can use git add -u  lt filenames gt  to stage the deleted files only   For example  if you deleted the files templates   tpl  then use git add -u templates   tpl   The -u is required in order to refer to files that exist in the repository but no longer exist in the working directory   Otherwise  the default of git add is to look for the files in the working directory  and if you specify files you ve deleted there  it won t find them

User · Answer

I needed the same  and used git gui  stage changed  button  it also adds all   And after  stage changed  I made  commit       so my working directory is clean again

User · Answer

By using git-add with  --all  or  --update  options you may get more than you wanted  New and or modified files will also be added to the index  I have a bash alias setup for when I want to remove deleted files from git without touching other files   alias grma  git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm    All files that have been removed from the file system are added to the index as deleted

User · Answer

git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm    might be what you are looking for   it works for me

User · Answer

Not that it really matters  but I disagree with the chose answer   git add -u        will remove files from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree have been removed  but it will also stage the modified new contents of tracked files    git rm   git ls-files --deleted        on the other hand will only rm the deleted files that were tracked   So the latter in my view is the better option

User · Answer

That simple solution works fine for me   git rm   git ls-files --deleted

User · Answer

Adding system alias for staging deleted files as command rm-all  UNIX alias rm-all  git rm   git ls-files --deleted    WINDOWS doskey rm-all bash -c  git rm   git ls-files --deleted    Note  Windows needs to have bash installed

User · Answer

Adding system alias for staging deleted files as command rm-all  UNIX alias rm-all  git rm   git ls-files --deleted    WINDOWS doskey rm-all bash -c  git rm   git ls-files --deleted    Note  Windows needs to have bash installed

User · Answer

Please use -t to see which command is actually being ran  I just tweaked Virender answer to do same   git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -t -0 git rm

User · Answer

If those are the only changes  you can simply do  git commit -a   to commit all changes  That will include deleted files

User · Answer

I needed the same  and used git gui  stage changed  button  it also adds all   And after  stage changed  I made  commit       so my working directory is clean again

User · Answer

git rm test txt   Before or after you deleted the actual file

User · Answer

Just simply git add    amp  amp  git commit -m  quot the message for commit quot   amp  amp  git push

User · Answer

git commit -m  commit msg    git ls-files --deleted    This worked for me after I had already deleted the files

User · Answer

You can use git add -u  lt filenames gt  to stage the deleted files only   For example  if you deleted the files templates   tpl  then use git add -u templates   tpl   The -u is required in order to refer to files that exist in the repository but no longer exist in the working directory   Otherwise  the default of git add is to look for the files in the working directory  and if you specify files you ve deleted there  it won t find them

User · Answer

For visual studio project   git ls-files --deleted   sed  s        1     xargs git rm     which is useful when the deleted file path has space

User · Answer

That simple solution works fine for me   git rm   git ls-files --deleted

User · Answer

Please use -t to see which command is actually being ran  I just tweaked Virender answer to do same   git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -t -0 git rm

User · Answer

something like   git status   sed -s  s    deleted        xargs git rm    may do it

User · Answer

Yet another variation   I wanted to delete all the already deleted from the disk files but from one specific folder  leaving the other folders untouched  The following worked for me   git ls-files --deleted    grep  lt folder-name gt    xargs git rm

User · Answer

git rm   git ls-files -d    Removes all files listed by the git ls-files command  -d show only deleted files   Doesn t work for files with spaces in the filename or path  but simple to remember

User · Answer

If you want to add it to your  gitconfig do this    alias    rma    git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm   Then all you have to do is run   git rma

User · Answer

You re probably looking for -A   git add -A   this is similar to git add -u  but also adds new files   This is roughly the equivalent of hg s addremove command  although the move detection is automatic

User · Answer

For Git 1 x    git add -u   This tells git to automatically stage tracked files -- including deleting the previously tracked files    For Git 2 0  To stage your whole working tree     git add -u      To stage just the current path     git add -u

User · Answer

Not that it really matters  but I disagree with the chose answer   git add -u        will remove files from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree have been removed  but it will also stage the modified new contents of tracked files    git rm   git ls-files --deleted        on the other hand will only rm the deleted files that were tracked   So the latter in my view is the better option

User · Answer

git ls-files --deleted   xargs git rm    is the best option to add only deleted files   Here is some other options   git add      gt  Add all  tracked and modified  new files in the working tree   git add -u   gt  Add all modified removed files which are tracked   git add -A   gt  Add all  tracked and modified   tracked and removed  new files in the working tree   git commit -a -m  commit message  - Add and commit modified removed files which are tracked

User · Answer

You re probably looking for -A   git add -A   this is similar to git add -u  but also adds new files   This is roughly the equivalent of hg s addremove command  although the move detection is automatic

User · Answer

For visual studio project   git ls-files --deleted   sed  s        1     xargs git rm     which is useful when the deleted file path has space

User · Answer

If you simply run   git add -u   git will update its index to know that the files that you ve deleted should actually be part of the next commit   Then you can run  git commit  to check in that change   Or  if you run   git commit -a   It will automatically take these changes  and any others  and commit them   Update  If you only want to add deleted files  try   git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm git commit

User · Answer

You can use   git add -u   To add the deleted files to the staging area  then commit them  git commit -m  Deleted files manually

User · Answer

If those are the only changes  you can simply do  git commit -a   to commit all changes  That will include deleted files

User · Answer

As mentioned  git add -u   stages the removed files for deletion  BUT ALSO modified files for update   To unstage the modified files you can do  git reset HEAD  lt path gt    if you like to keep your commits organized and clean NOTE  This could also unstage the deleted files  so careful with those wildcards

User · Answer

For Git 1 x    git add -u   This tells git to automatically stage tracked files -- including deleting the previously tracked files    For Git 2 0  To stage your whole working tree     git add -u      To stage just the current path     git add -u

User · Answer

If you want to add it to your  gitconfig do this    alias    rma    git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm   Then all you have to do is run   git rma

User · Answer

If those are the only changes  you can simply do  git commit -a   to commit all changes  That will include deleted files

User · Answer

git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm --cached   This will remove all deleted files that were previous tracked by git  as well as handle the case where your filenames have spaces in them    Depending on your POSIX variant  you may need to use xargs -0 -r  this will cause xargs to gracefully exit when piped null content   EDIT  --cached and --deleted flags are used in tandem to safeguard against accidentally deleting files that have not already been deleted

User · Answer

Yet another variation   I wanted to delete all the already deleted from the disk files but from one specific folder  leaving the other folders untouched  The following worked for me   git ls-files --deleted    grep  lt folder-name gt    xargs git rm

User · Answer

If you simply run   git add -u   git will update its index to know that the files that you ve deleted should actually be part of the next commit   Then you can run  git commit  to check in that change   Or  if you run   git commit -a   It will automatically take these changes  and any others  and commit them   Update  If you only want to add deleted files  try   git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm git commit

User · Answer

By using git-add with  --all  or  --update  options you may get more than you wanted  New and or modified files will also be added to the index  I have a bash alias setup for when I want to remove deleted files from git without touching other files   alias grma  git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm    All files that have been removed from the file system are added to the index as deleted

User · Answer

git rm test txt   Before or after you deleted the actual file

User · Answer

You re probably looking for -A   git add -A   this is similar to git add -u  but also adds new files   This is roughly the equivalent of hg s addremove command  although the move detection is automatic

User · Answer

None of the flags to git-add will only stage removed files  if all you have modified are deleted files  then you re fine  but otherwise  you need to run git-status and parse the output   Working off of Jeremy s answer  this is what I got   git status    sed -s  s    deleted        grep        commit    -v   xargs git rm    Get status of files  For deleted files  isolate the name of the file  Remove all the lines that start with  s  as well as a status line that had the word  deleted  in it  I don t remember what it was  exactly  and it s not there any longer  so you may have to modify this for different situations   I think grouping of expressions might be a GNU-specific feature  so if you re not using gnutils  you may have to add multiple grep -v lines  Pass the files to git rm    Sticking this in a shell alias now

User · Answer

The following will work  even if you have a lot of files to process   git ls-files --deleted   xargs git rm   You ll probably also want to commit with a comment   For details  see   Useful Git Scripts

User · Answer

git ls-files --deleted -z   xargs -0 git rm --cached   This will remove all deleted files that were previous tracked by git  as well as handle the case where your filenames have spaces in them    Depending on your POSIX variant  you may need to use xargs -0 -r  this will cause xargs to gracefully exit when piped null content   EDIT  --cached and --deleted flags are used in tandem to safeguard against accidentally deleting files that have not already been deleted

User · Answer

You can use   git add -u   To add the deleted files to the staging area  then commit them  git commit -m  Deleted files manually

User · Answer

git add -u  -u --update Only match  against already tracked files in the index rather than the working tree  That means that it will never stage new files  but that it will stage modified new contents of tracked files and that it will remove files from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree have been removed   If no  is given  default to      in other words  update all tracked files in the current directory and its subdirectories

User · Answer

Tell the command to automatically stage files that have been modified and deleted  but new files you have not told Git about are not affected        -a   --all   git add    amp  amp  git commit -m -a  Your commit    or   git add --all  amp  amp  git commit -m  Your commit

User · Answer

You can use   git add -u   To add the deleted files to the staging area  then commit them  git commit -m  Deleted files manually

User · Answer

git commit -m  commit msg    git ls-files --deleted    This worked for me after I had already deleted the files

User · Answer

something like   git status   sed -s  s    deleted        xargs git rm    may do it

User · Answer

The most flexible solution I have found to date is to  git cola   And select all deleted files I want to stage     Note I usually do everything commandline in git  but git handles removed files a bit awkward

User · Answer

To stage only the deleted files   for x in   git status   grep deleted   awk   print  2     do git rm  x  done   Or  the xargs way    git status   awk   deleted   print  2     xargs git rm   You can alias your preferred command set for convenient later use

User · Answer

The following will work  even if you have a lot of files to process   git ls-files --deleted   xargs git rm   You ll probably also want to commit with a comment   For details  see   Useful Git Scripts

[git] Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have already been deleted from disk

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