How to remove files that are listed in the .gitignore but still on the repository?

Question

I have some files in my repository that should be ignored, i added them to the .gitignore but, of course, they are not removed from my repository.

So my question is, is there a magic command or script using filter-branch that can rewrite my history and remove all these files easily? Or simply a command that will create a commit that will remove them ?

Answer 1

You can remove them from the repository manually:

git rm --cached file1 file2 dir/file3 

Or, if you have a lot of files:

git rm --cached `git ls-files -i -c --exclude-from=.gitignore` 

But this doesn't seem to work in Git Bash on Windows. It produces an error message. The following works better:

git ls-files -i -c --exclude-from=.gitignore | xargs git rm --cached   

In PowerShell on Windows this works even better (handles spaces in path and filenames):

git ls-files -i -c --exclude-from=.gitignore | %{git rm --cached $_} 

Regarding rewriting the whole history without these files, I highly doubt there's an automatic way to do it.
And we all know that rewriting the history is bad, don't we? :)

Answer 2

An easier way that works regardless of the OS is to do

git rm -r --cached . git add . git commit -m "Drop files from .gitignore" 

You basically remove and re-add all files, but git add will ignore the ones in .gitignore.

Using the --cached option will keep files in your filesystem, so you won't be removing files from your disk.

Note: Some pointed out in the comments that you will lose the history of all your files. I tested this with git 2.27.0 on MacOS and it is not the case. If you want to check what is happening, check your git diff HEAD~1 before you push your commit.