How to make Git “forget” about a file that was tra

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?

Answer 1

In case of already committed DS_Store:

find . -name .DS_Store -print0 | xargs -0 git rm --ignore-unmatch

Ignore them by:

echo ".DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
echo "._.DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
echo "**/.DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
echo "**/._.DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global

Finally, make a commit!

Answer 2

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).

Answer 3

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"

Answer 4

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" > file
git add file
git commit -m initial

# Add the file to gitignore and commit
echo "file" > .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" > file
git status

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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.