Deleting & Untracking Files

Deleting files in a Git project requires a bit more thought than just pressing Delete. You need to tell Git about the removal, and sometimes you want to stop tracking a file without deleting it from disk. This episode covers every file removal scenario.

Removing Files from Git and Disk

# Delete a file and stage the deletion in one step
git rm old-file.txt
git commit -m "Remove old-file.txt"

# Same as doing:
rm old-file.txt        # Delete from disk
git add old-file.txt   # Stage the deletion

Removing from Git but Keeping on Disk

This is common when you accidentally committed a file that should be ignored (like .env or node_modules):

# Stop tracking but DON'T delete the file
git rm --cached .env
git commit -m "Remove .env from tracking"

# Stop tracking an entire directory
git rm -r --cached node_modules/
git commit -m "Remove node_modules from tracking"

# The file still exists on your computer — Git just stops tracking it.
# Add it to .gitignore to prevent re-adding.

Renaming / Moving Files

# Rename a file (Git tracks this as a rename, not delete+create)
git mv old-name.js new-name.js
git commit -m "Rename old-name.js to new-name.js"

# Move a file to another directory
git mv src/utils.js lib/utils.js
git commit -m "Move utils.js to lib directory"

Discarding Changes

# Discard changes to a file (revert to last committed version)
git restore index.html

# Discard ALL changes in working directory
git restore .

# Older syntax (still works)
git checkout -- index.html

# WARNING: These commands permanently discard your changes!
# There's no undo for uncommitted changes.

Cleaning Untracked Files

# See what would be removed (dry run)
git clean -n

# Remove untracked files
git clean -f

# Remove untracked files AND directories
git clean -fd

# Remove ignored files too (nuclear option)
git clean -fdx

Common Scenarios

Accidentally Committed node_modules

echo "node_modules/" >> .gitignore
git rm -r --cached node_modules/
git commit -m "Remove node_modules, add to gitignore"

Accidentally Committed a Secret (.env)

echo ".env" >> .gitignore
git rm --cached .env
git commit -m "Remove .env from tracking"
# Important: The secret is still in Git history!
# Change the actual secret/password immediately.

What's Next

You can now manage file additions and removals confidently. In the next episode, we'll explore the project history — viewing commits, comparing changes, and understanding how Git stores time.