#Remove all untracked files how to

In this tutorial, I will show you how to delete untracked local files from your current working tree. This is especially useful when working on a project that is not yet complete. It will delete all untracked files(ignored and un-ignored) and all untracked folders.When working on a project, it is often useful to be able to remove all unstaged changes from the project. In most cases, the following combination of the options gets the job done. x will remove both ignored and un-ignored files. If you wish to remove submodules, use the -f option twice. d is used to remove untracked directories in addition to the untracked files. Always include this option with the Git Clean command. n or -dry-run will output the names of the files that will be removed. The use of these options is summarized below. We have discussed the most frequently used options with the Git Clean command. The Git Clean command helps us remove untracked files and folders from our repository. git clean -f -X -nĪs we can see, -X option only removes demo2.txt(ignored file) but the -x option removes both demo1.txt and demo2.txt. Let's compare the dry run outputs of -x and -X options. Git clean -f -x # both ignored and un-ignored filesįor example, consider a repository with two untracked files( demo1.txt and demo2.txt).

The difference between them is that -X will only delete ignored files, but -x will remove both ignored and un-ignored files. Git Clean has the -x and -X options to delete ignored files. Removing New folder/ Git Clean with -x and -X option To remove both the untracked file and the untracked folder, then we need the -d option. If we dry run the Git Clean command with just the -f flag, then it returns the following output. In such cases, it removes all untracked files matching the file path.įor example, consider a repository with one untracked file( demo.txt) and an untracked directory( New Folder). Note that the -d option is irrelevant if a path is passed to the Git Clean command. If an untracked directory is a Git Repository or a Submodule, we must use the -f option twice. Git clean -fd # equivalent to the above command

The -d option allows us to delete untracked directories as well. It will not remove any untracked directories. Removing demo2.txt Git Clean with -d optionĪ simple Git Clean command will only delete untracked files. git clean -fįor example, if our repository contains two untracked files( demo1.txt and demo2.txt), then the git clean -fcommand will delete these two files and return the following output. It is a good practice to always include this option with the Git Clean command when you want to remove untracked files. So Git adds this safety feature and uses the -f flag for confirmation.Īccording to Git Documentation, the -f option will delete untracked files even when the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set to false. An untracked file, once deleted, cannot be recovered. This option allows us to execute the Git Clean command and delete files. git clean -dry-run Output:Īs we can see in the output, Git tells that demo1.txt and demo2.txt would be removed if we run Git Clean without the -n option. If we dry run the Git Clean command, we will get the following output. git clean -nįor example, consider a Git repository with two untracked files( demo1.txt and demo2.txt). Note that it will not affect or delete any untracked files. It outputs the file names that will be removed. Git Clean command with the -n or -dry-run option will perform a dry run. A dry run allows us to view the untracked files that will be removed when the actual command is executed. As mentioned above, once deleted, an untracked file cannot be restored.

Remove all untracked files