How to delete a file from a Gist?

Question

I accidentally added file to one of my Gists, but I don't know how to delete it. How to do it? (That is, how to delete a file from a Gist, without deleting the whole Gist?)

When I edit and click on (x) on the left of the filename, then both filename and its content disappear, but not the editor. And when I want to save it (Update Gist), there is an error "Files can't be empty".

Answer 1

This worked for me in the UI:

• update gist
• delete the contents
• delete the file's name
• click on the blue cross where the file name was

The form for the file should disappear.

After that, save your gist.

Answer 2

I didn't find a way through the GUI.

However, remember you can clone a gist, remove the file, and push a new version of that Gist back to GitHub, with that file removed.

P:\git\test>git clone https://gist.github.com/efd7e7774d9526484456.git
Cloning into 'efd7e7774d9526484456'...
remote: Counting objects: 8, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
remote: Total 8 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (8/8), done.

P:\git\test>cd efd7e7774d9526484456

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>dir
 Volume in drive P has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is D866-48E1

 Directory of P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456

27/04/2013  16:52    <DIR>          .
27/04/2013  16:52    <DIR>          ..
27/04/2013  16:52                 5 f1
27/04/2013  16:52                 5 f2
               2 File(s)             10 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  43 554 910 208 bytes free

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>git rm f2
rm 'f2'

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>dir
 Volume in drive P has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is D866-48E1

 Directory of P:\git\days\efd7e7774d9526484456

27/04/2013  16:52    <DIR>          .
27/04/2013  16:52    <DIR>          ..
27/04/2013  16:52                 5 f1
               1 File(s)              5 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  43 555 000 320 bytes free

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>git st
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#       deleted:    f2
#

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>git commit -m "remove f2"
[master d5a76f4] remove f2
 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)
 delete mode 100644 f2

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>git push

Username for 'https://gist.github.com': VonC
Password for 'https://[email protected]':
Counting objects: 3, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (1/1), done.
Writing objects: 100% (2/2), 218 bytes, done.
Total 2 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To https://gist.github.com/efd7e7774d9526484456.git
   b93ce40..d5a76f4  master -> master

If you don't want that file in the history (log) of your gist, you can reset --hard:

P:\git\test\days\efd7e7774d9526484456>git lg
* d5a76f4 - (HEAD, origin/master, origin/HEAD, master) remove f2 (3 minutes ago) <VonC>
* b93ce40 -  (7 minutes ago) <VonC>
* d7d8b19 -  (8 minutes ago) <VonC>
* 5eae4d3 -  (8 minutes ago) <VonC>

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>git reset --hard d7d8b19
HEAD is now at d7d8b19

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>dir
 Volume in drive P has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is D866-48E1

 Directory of P:\git\test\days\efd7e7774d9526484456

27/04/2013  16:52    <DIR>          .
27/04/2013  16:52    <DIR>          ..
27/04/2013  16:52                 5 f1
               1 File(s)              5 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  43 554 832 384 bytes free

P:\git\test\efd7e7774d9526484456>git push --force

Username for 'https://gist.github.com': VonC
Password for 'https://[email protected]':
Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To https://gist.github.com/efd7e7774d9526484456.git
 + d5a76f4...d7d8b19 master -> master (forced update)

Answer 3

Gists are git repositories, therefore you can clone that gist to your computer, prune that file and force push the gist repo back to GitHub.

You find your clone URL on the left of your gist.

git clone https://gist.github.com/1234567.git
cd 1234567
git filter-branch --force --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch wrong_file' --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
git push origin master --force

This way everything including your history is cleaned up (in this example the file is calles wrong_file).