I added files ending with ~ in my repository in GitHub and now I want to remove them.
For example I added:
README.md and the file
README.md~ was added as well.
Any help please?
3 Answers
For ignoring all the file ending with a ~ you should add this to the .gitignore file at the top-level in your repository (alongside the .git directory).
# Ignore all emacs backup files *~ Then, for changing the history and removing the README.md~ file, you can either do it manually with git rebase --interactive or try to use git filter-branch:
$ git filter-branch --prune-empty --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch README.md~' HEAD 
1 Comment
glarkou
Thanks a lot mate! I run git filter-branch --prune-empty --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch README.md~' HEAD after putting .gitignore. That fixed everything!
You should make use of gitignore to ignore these files you don't wish to appear in your repository.
To remove the files, you can use
git rm README.md~ then commit as usual.
2 Comments
glarkou
Is there a way to remove all files ending with *~ . And how can I add this to .gitignore ? Thanks
Matt Healy
You could try something like:
git rm *~ Then add to your .gitignore file: *~If you want to rewrite the history, the easiest way is probably to use git rebase -i:
- remove the file with
git rm, add*~to your .gitignore, and commit your changes git rebase -i commit_before_the_file_was_added- in your text editor, put the line of your last commit just after the one of the commit in which you added the file, and change "pick" to "fixup"
- save, exit, watch magic happen
- double-check that your history is fine, and
git push -f.
...or you can use what's suggested in this question.
git rm), to prevent them from being added again (man gitignore), or to rewrite your history so they appear to have never been added?