Removing stuff with git: just remove any file, remove files from the staging area, how to remove files that were not supposed to be added, and how to remove everything.

Simply remove a file

Scenario 1: an unused file needs to be removed:

$ git rm <file-name>
$ git commit -m "Remove old file"

What’s the difference between rm and git rm? Not much: rm foo.txt, will remove the file, and git status will show deleted: foo.txt. But git rm foo.txt will remove the file and add it to the staging area.

Remove files from the staging area

Scenario 2: wrong files were added, but they were not yet committed, then a simple reset will remove the files from the staging area, but doesn’t actually delete the files. This is the same staging area described in the Git guide to adding files:

$ git reset HEAD <file-name>
 
# Or everything
$ git reset HEAD

Remove files that should’ve been ignored

Scenario 3: make a commit and notice a stray directory or a file (for example .DS_Store) that should have been ignored in the first place, i.e.: make git forget already committed files.

First, add the file to the project’s .gitignore, and then neutralize the cache:

$ git rm --cached <file-name>
 
# Globbing is possible as usual
$ git rm --cached *.log

If a directory, use the -r flag:

$ git rm -r --cached directory/

Nuke all made changes for good

Scenario 4: changes in the current branch are wanted to be decimated from all eternity:

$ git reset --hard

Careful, that will remove staged and unstaged changes.

To only remove unstaged changes in the current working directory, use:

$ git checkout -- .

Also, a given amount of commits can be reset. The following will destroy the last two commits completely. For accidentally deleted files, use the recovery steps in this Git guide to getting deleted files back:

$ git reset HEAD~2 --hard

Soft reset is also possible, which is not really removing any files. This way the commits are removed, but the changed files are kept:

$ git reset HEAD~2 --soft

After that, git shows a dirty tree.