Git: Exclude a file with git clean

Question

i'm working on a big python project, and i'm really sick if .pyc and *~ files. I'd like to remove them. I've seen that the -X flag of git clean would remove untracked files. As you can imagine, i'm not tracking .pyc nor *~ files. And that would make the trick. The problem is that i've a local_settings.py file that I'd like to keep after the git clean.

So, this is what I've got.

.gitignore:

*.pyc *~ local_settings.py 

When I execute this command:

git clean -X -n -e local_settings.py 

I get this list of results:

Would remove local_settings.py
Would remove requirements.txt~
Would remove (other bunch of) ~ files
Would remove (other bunch of) pyc files

I don't want to remove the local_settings.py file. I've tryed lots of ways to do it, but i can't figure out how to acomplish it.

git clean -X -n -e local_settings.py git clean -X -n -e "local_settings.py" git clean -X -n --exclude=local_settings.py git clean -X -n --exclude="local_settings.py" 

And nothing seems to work.

EDIT:

For posterity, the right way to do it is (Thanks @Rifat):

git clean -x -n -e local_settings.py # Shows what would remove (-n flag) git clean -x -f -e local_settings.py # Removes it (note the -f flag) 

Answer 1

The difference is the capital X you're using. Use a small x instead of the capital one. Like in: git clean -x.

git clean -x -n -e local_settings.py # Shows what would remove (-n flag) git clean -x -f -e local_settings.py # Removes it (note the -f flag) 

From the git documentation:

   -x        Don't use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per        directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore        rules given with -e options. This allows removing all untracked        files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in        conjunction with git reset) to create a pristine working directory        to test a clean build.     -X        Remove only files ignored by git. This may be useful to rebuild        everything from scratch, but keep manually created files. 

Answer 2

git clean -X -n --exclude="!local_settings.py" 

works. I discovered this when I googled and got this page.