I'm using Git for version control. Now I want to delete on my local machine all files in the repository that are not tracked.
I can use
git status to list these files, but how can I delete all of them?
- 1Cant you just check out all the files to a different place one your machine and then delete the old version?Nifle– Nifle2011-09-14 13:59:25 +00:00Commented Sep 14, 2011 at 13:59
- 1For sure I can, but isn't there a simpler way?RoflcoptrException– RoflcoptrException2011-09-14 14:01:06 +00:00Commented Sep 14, 2011 at 14:01
- See also: Stack Overflow: How do I discard unstaged changes in Git?.Gabriel Staples– Gabriel Staples2021-03-09 22:19:25 +00:00Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 22:19
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4 Answers
If you have it in ignore, use git clean -xf. You can do git clean -df but that will also remove un-tracked directories. Use -n for a dry-run.
- 3-x ignores the ignores..UpAndAdam– UpAndAdam2014-04-10 19:01:30 +00:00Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 19:01
- 10
-xfwill delete and the ignored files and this is probably NOT what you want. Use-nfand proceed with care. See: stackoverflow.com/questions/61212/…Mr_and_Mrs_D– Mr_and_Mrs_D2014-07-09 21:13:39 +00:00Commented Jul 9, 2014 at 21:13 - 2Remember, this may remove your environment/IDE folders (e.g. .vagrant or .idea (phpstorm))timhc22– timhc222014-11-21 12:12:48 +00:00Commented Nov 21, 2014 at 12:12
- 1WATCHOUT! gitignored files will be purged forever. -100sepehr– sepehr2019-02-26 14:45:03 +00:00Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 14:45
User interactive approach:
git clean -i -fd Remove .classpath [y/N]? N Remove .gitignore [y/N]? N Remove .project [y/N]? N Remove .settings/ [y/N]? N Remove src/com/amazon/arsdumpgenerator/inspector/ [y/N]? y Remove src/com/amazon/arsdumpgenerator/manifest/ [y/N]? y Remove src/com/amazon/arsdumpgenerator/s3/ [y/N]? y Remove tst/com/amazon/arsdumpgenerator/manifest/ [y/N]? y Remove tst/com/amazon/arsdumpgenerator/s3/ [y/N]? y -i for interactive
-f for file
-d for directory
Note: Add -n or --dry-run to just check what it will do.
There is a subtlety worth mentioning about git clean -f vis-a-vis untracked files and directories. If you have an untracked directory that contains files which are, a fortiori, untracked, then git clean -f will NOT delete those untracked files.
In other words, it is NOT always the case that git clean -f will delete all untracked files. A better explanation of git clean -f is that it deletes all untracked files that are not in untracked directories.
git clean -f -d must be used to delete untracked files that are in untracked directories and there appears to be no way to delete all untracked files without also deleting untracked directories that only contain untracked files.
Use git clean -f -d -n to REALLY see what you want to do to restore your working directory to what it would be without any untracked files. Then use git clean -f -d to do that.
