When is git rm -f used?

Question

I am learning Git and am unable to understand under what condition the -f flag is used while issuing the "git rm" command. Please explain a scenario where rm -f would be required instead of rm only?

Answer 1

Explanation:

The -f is used to remove a file if the file is not up to date with your last checked out commit. It is to prevent you from removing a file that you have made changes to, but have not yet checked them in.

Example:

You check out commit 0a12d4 that contains the file sample.txt. Before you change any files, you could remove the sample.txt with git rm sample.txt. However, once you make a change to sample.txt, you would need to use git rm -f sample.txt to remove the file

Answer 2

If you edit a file, and then realize you want to delete it instead.

$ ls
func.c
$ vim func.c
...edit the file...

Now that I think about it, I actually want to delete it...

$ git rm func.c
error: 'func.c' has local modifications
(use --cached to keep the file, or -f to force removal)
$ git rm -f func.c

Answer 3

If you try to git rm a file that has unstaged changes, it fails if you don't provide the -f flag:

$ git rm a.txt
error: 'a.txt' has local modifications
(use --cached to keep the file, or -f to force removal)