{"id":6281,"date":"2018-07-15T13:15:01","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T13:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/?p=6281"},"modified":"2023-12-26T13:35:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T13:35:55","slug":"remove-file-directory-git","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/remove-file-directory-git\/","title":{"rendered":"Removing Files in Git"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

\n

A file can be removed easily from Git index and working directory by Git rm<\/strong> command. For example:<\/p>\n

git rm some_file<\/div>\n

After adding a file in Git, you may be required to remove it for different reasons and at various levels.<\/p>\n

You may remove it from the index, working tree as well as file system or just remove it from the index and working tree.<\/p>\n

The next section takes you through different scenarios of removing files and directories in different states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Scenario 1: The example of removing a file after a commit<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In this example, I will delete a file after it is committed or staged for uploading\/pushing to the remote repository.<\/p>\n

Suppose, we added a file (tst1.txt) in our master branch in the local repo as follows:<\/p>\n

$ git add tst1.txt<\/div>\n

If you decided to remove the file at this stage then the above rm command won\u2019t do that. That is, running the:<\/p>\n

$ git rm tst1.txt<\/div>\n

will produce the following error:<\/p>\n

error: the following file has changes staged in the index:\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 tst1.txt\r\n\r\n(use --cached to keep the file, or -f to force removal)<\/pre>\n
As we run the commit command:<\/p>\n
$ git commit -m “Text file added”<\/div>\n
[master 8547f8c] Text file added\r\n\r\n\u00a01 file changed, 1 insertion(+)\r\n\r\n\u00a0create mode 100644 tst1.txt<\/pre>\n
if you decide to remove the file after a commit is made then a simple rm<\/strong> command will remove it from the index as well as the file system i.e. from the repo<\/strong> directory:<\/p>\n
$ git rm tst1.txt\r\n\r\nrm 'tst1.txt'<\/pre>\n
After running this command, if you look at the folder, the tst1.txt file should have been removed there as well.<\/div>\n
What if I want to keep the file in the directory?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
You may want to remove the file from the working tree<\/strong> or index<\/strong> only while keeping it in the file system. For example, you want to commit other changes in the online repo while still needing to work on a code file that has been staged for uploading.<\/p>\n
In that case, you may run the rm command<\/strong> with –cached<\/strong> flag.<\/div>\n
Suppose, we again have a tst1.txt<\/em> file that has been added and committed and now we want to remove it from the working tree:<\/p>\n
$ git rm --cached tst1.txt<\/pre>\n
If you check the folder, you will see the tst1.txt file is still there. After this command, just run the commit command and push the changes to the remote repository.<\/p>\n
Removing a directory example<\/strong><\/h3>\n
You may use the \u2013r<\/strong> option in the Git rm command to remove a folder. Any files contained in the folder are also removed.<\/p>\n
The \u2013r option in rm command allows recursive removal if you provide a leading directory name.<\/div>\n
To see it in action, I have created a directory with the name of code<\/em><\/strong> in our demo repository:<\/p>\n
$ git add code<\/div>\n
Committing the changes:<\/p>\n
$ git commit -m “Folder added”<\/div>\n
After that, the push command is used for uploading changes to the online repo:<\/p>\n
$ git push origin master<\/div>\n
\"Git<\/p>\n
You can see that the online repo shows the code folder and a file inside it i.e. footer.php<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Deleting the directory:<\/strong><\/p>\n
$ git rm -r code<\/div>\n
This should result in:<\/strong><\/p>\n
rm 'code\/footer.php'\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n
Committing the changes after removing the directory:<\/p>\n
$ git commit -m “Code Folder removed”<\/div>\n
Again running the push command:<\/p>\n
$ git push origin master<\/div>\n
If you refresh the online repo, the folder should have been removed there as well.<\/p>\n
Keeping the folder in the file system example<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The above command removes the folder\/files from the Git index and working tree as well as from the file system.<\/p>\n
If you want to keep the folder in the file system and just remove it from the working tree then use the –cached<\/strong>\u00a0option as follows.<\/div>\n
Consider, we have a folder code2<\/em> containing two files. This is added and committed in the local and remote repos. For deleting it from the repo:<\/p>\n
$ git rm -r --cached code2<\/pre>\n
If you look at the folder, the directory (code2) should be in place.<\/p>\n
After the commit<\/strong> command, if you run the push command, you will see the folder no longer exists in the online repo.<\/p>\n
Deleting multiple files example<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Suppose, we have a folder named \u201cdel-demo\u201d that contains five text files (tst1.txt, tst2.txt tst3.txt tst4.txt tst5.txt). We want to remove three files with a single command and upload the changes. This is how it can be done:<\/p>\n
$ git rm del-demo\/tst2.txt del-demo\/tst3.txt del-demo\/tst4.txt<\/div>\n
The output should be:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
rm ‘del-demo\/tst2.txt’<\/p>\n
rm ‘del-demo\/tst3.txt’<\/p>\n
rm ‘del-demo\/tst4.txt’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Now run the commit command:<\/p>\n
$ git commit -m “Removed three text files”<\/div>\n
The result:<\/strong><\/p>\n
[master 2a90231] Removed three text files\r\n\r\n\u00a03 files changed, 3 deletions(-)\r\n\r\n\u00a0delete mode 100644 del-demo\/tst2.txt\r\n\r\n\u00a0delete mode 100644 del-demo\/tst3.txt\r\n\r\n\u00a0delete mode 100644 del-demo\/tst4.txt<\/pre>\n
Now you are good to go for making a push and making changes online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Master the art of file and directory removal in Git repositories with these practical examples and explanations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[85],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 Examples of How to Remove File\/Directory in Git<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Master the art of file and directory removal in Git repositories with these practical examples and explanations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/remove-file-directory-git\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Examples of How to Remove File\/Directory in Git\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" 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