How to add and commit removals made with "rm" instead of "git rm"?

Question

I deleted a bunch of files and directories from a Git repository using rm, the Finder, etc.

I'm looking for a Git command that'll record these to the index as marked for removal, as if I had called git rm on them.

I understand git add -u will do this, along with a bunch of other things. I'd like my command to exclusively handle removals.

Related, but not an exact duplicate: [Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have already been deleted from disk](http://stackoverflow.com/q/492558/456814). The other question already states that `git rm` can stage the removed files, it's just looking for a way to stage them all with a single invocation of `git rm`. — , Aug 05 '14 at 15:19
Possible duplicate of [Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have already been deleted from disk](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/492558/removing-multiple-files-from-a-git-repo-that-have-already-been-deleted-from-disk) — Adam Michalik, Jul 30 '18 at 08:19

Greg Bacon · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-11T15:43:49.113

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Without spaces in filenames:

$ git rm `git ls-files -d`

More robust:

$ git ls-files -z -d | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty git rm

edited Sep 11 '17 at 15:43

answered Dec 06 '09 at 21:34

Greg Bacon

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Note that it needs to be run from your repo's top-level directory. – Greg Bacon Dec 06 '09 at 22:04

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 17 '10 at 23:37

Take a look what Jonio C Hamano wrote in "Re: [PATCH 1/2] Documentation: 'git add -A' can remove files" post at git mailing list, namely that this question looks like XY problem (you are asking about assumed solution Y to the problem, instead about the problem X itself). The solution to problem (if it is really "XY problem" situation) might be:

git commit -a, which would automatically pick up deletions, committing current state of tracked files in working directory
git add -A, which would add not ignored untracked files and remove no longer existing files, e.g. if you want to create commit from sideways update of working directory, e.g. unpacking a snapshot or result of rsync.

Nevertheless if what you ask is a problem (and not solution), then as you can see from other answers there are tools in place to do it.

This answers the question directly: git commit -a – Jack Mason Feb 02 '20 at 20:53 — Jack Mason, Feb 02 '20 at 20:53

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 06 '09 at 21:33

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Charles Bailey's answer nudged me towards this, but I still welcome something shorter.

$ git diff --name-only --diff-filter=D | xargs git rm

answered Dec 06 '09 at 21:33

kch

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 14 '14 at 04:34

In Git 2.0, git add behaves like git add --ignore-removal <pathspec> which ignores paths you removed from your working tree.

You can use git add --all <pathspec> to record the removals.

Run git status to check the paths you removed from your working tree.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 26 '14 at 11:30

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This command will give you a list of all deleted files which will be forward to git rm. So all files will be removed. If no deleted files were found, nothing will be happen:

git ls-files -z -d | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty git rm

answered Jun 26 '14 at 11:30

Roman

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How to add and commit removals made with "rm" instead of "git rm"?

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