Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have

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.

Answer 1

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

1. Get status of files.
2. For deleted files, isolate the name of the file.
3. 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.
4. Pass the files to git rm.

Sticking this in a shell alias now...

Answer 2

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 <path>

if you like to keep your commits organized and clean.
NOTE: This could also unstage the deleted files, so careful with those wildcards.

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

git commit -m 'commit msg' $(git ls-files --deleted)

This worked for me after I had already deleted the files.

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

(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 <folder-name> | xargs git rm