Get file out of git repo and git ignore it without deleting it from filesystem

Question

So, a config file somehow made its way into our git repo that we don't want there. But we do want it on our individual systems.

Is there a way to get the file out of the repo without causing the file to get deleted from individual repos when our team members do a pull?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

You will need to remove it from repository (not working tree) using

git rm --cached

and tell your coworkers to do a backup in the first time they sync (pull) their repositories, because git will delete it.
Otherwise, even the file being present on .gitignore, git will always detect changes when the file does part of the repository.