How to remove multiple deleted files in Git repository

Question

I have deleted some files and git status shows as below.

I have committed and pushed.

GitHub still shows the deleted files in the repository. How can I delete files in the GitHub repository?

# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   deleted:    modules/welcome/language/english/kaimonokago_lang.php
#   deleted:    modules/welcome/language/french/kaimonokago_lang.php
#   deleted:    modules/welcome/language/german/kaimonokago_lang.php
#   deleted:    modules/welcome/language/norwegian/kaimonokago_lang.php

If I use git rm, it gives the following.

usage: git rm [options] [--] <file>...

-n, --dry-run         dry run
-q, --quiet           do not list removed files
--cached              only remove from the index
-f, --force           override the up-to-date check
-r                    allow recursive removal
--ignore-unmatch      exit with a zero status even if nothing matched

Possible duplicate of: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1402776/how-do-i-commit-all-deleted-files-in-git http://stackoverflow.com/questions/492558/removing-multiple-files-from-a-git-repo-that-have-already-been-deleted-from-disk — toto_tico, Apr 13 '12 at 03:47
Duplicate of [Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have already been deleted from disk](http://stackoverflow.com/q/492558/456814). — , Jun 26 '14 at 02:06

score 678 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 01 '12 at 05:18

678

git add -u

updates all your changes

edited Oct 01 '12 at 05:18

pb2q

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answered Sep 01 '12 at 16:48

mshameers

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Works a charm. When you see something like "git status | sed -n '/^# *deleted:/s///p' | xargs git rm" as a proposed solution for such a simple yet frequent requirement then you know a better solution is, or soon will be, around the corner. – arcseldon Oct 04 '13 at 10:10
simple is better, this is really handy then the "bash" way – castiel Sep 05 '14 at 10:46
2

Author asks how to remove files, why adding files is the correct answer? – kelin Feb 12 '16 at 13:40
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@kelin: from git docs (https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add): "-u --update Update the index just where it already has an entry matching . This removes as well as modifies index entries to match the working tree, but adds no new files. If no is given when -u option is used, all tracked files in the entire working tree are updated (old versions of Git used to limit the update to the current directory and its subdirectories)." – HEDMON Feb 23 '16 at 06:40

Jonathan Leffler · Answer 2 · 2011-05-14T20:35:04.323

92

Be very cautious about git rm .; it might remove more than you want. Of course, you can recover, but it is simpler not to have to do so.

Simplest would be:

git rm modules/welcome/language/english/kaimonokago_lang.php \
       modules/welcome/language/french/kaimonokago_lang.php \
       modules/welcome/language/german/kaimonokago_lang.php \
       modules/welcome/language/norwegian/kaimonokago_lang.php

You can't use shell wildcards because the files don't exist, but you could use (in Bash at least):

git rm modules/welcome/language/{english,french,german,norwegian}/kaimonokago_lang.php

Or consider:

git status | sed -n '/^# *deleted:/s///p' | xargs git rm

This takes the output of git status, doesn't print anything by default (sed -n), but on lines that start # deleted:, it gets rid of the # and the deleted: and prints what is left; xargs gathers up the arguments and provides them to a git rm command. This works for any number of files regardless of similarity (or dissimilarity) in the names.

edited May 14 '11 at 20:35

answered May 14 '11 at 20:22

Jonathan Leffler

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You *can* use wildcards (though you may need to escape them), and git will match the paths in the index, not just those in the working tree, so it doesn't matter that they don't exist on the filesystem. – Ben James May 14 '11 at 22:20
110

`git diff --diff-filter=D --name-only -z | xargs -0 git rm` is a more reliable approach than trying to parse `git status` which is user oriented and not guaranteed to be stable over future versions. – CB Bailey May 14 '11 at 22:26
@Charles: that is certainly better, but it requires quite a lot of knowledge about what options are available with `git diff` (which I didn't have, not having had the need before). Thanks! – Jonathan Leffler May 14 '11 at 22:33
8

Note that there is also "git ls-files --deleted" – Petr Gladkikh Nov 15 '12 at 11:15
Also note that @CharlesBailey's great one-line needs to be run from the top level of your repository or you may see pathsec errors. – LeonardChallis Jul 24 '14 at 12:52
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so, `git ls-files --deleted | xargs git rm` did the trick for me. – fiacobelli Jan 23 '15 at 16:34

score 55 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 04 '13 at 18:40

55

Another version to ByScripts answer is

git rm $(git ls-files --deleted)

This will ONLY remove the deleted files from the git.

It could be also be used for adding ONLY modified files also.

git add $(git ls-files --modified)

These commands also works on gitbash for windows.

answered Jul 04 '13 at 18:40

Vijay C

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Priceless, the `git ls-files` with status deleted or modified is so helpful. – Mario Peshev Sep 24 '14 at 08:24
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The behavior of `'git add --update (or -u)'` with no path argument from a subdirectory of the tree will change in Git 2.0 and should not be used anymore. To add content for the whole tree, run: `git add --update :/` (or git add -u :/) To restrict the command to the current directory, run: `git add --update .` (or git add -u .) With the current Git version, the command is restricted to the current directory – Ans Dec 18 '14 at 14:03
1

Any idea how to handle paths with spaces in them ? Example: `src/my spaced directory/myfile`. This can be handled individually but how can it be handled using the commands in this answer ? – Muhammad Gelbana Jun 03 '15 at 17:33

score 40 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 00:45

40

Update all changes you made:

git add -u

The deleted files should change from unstaged (usually red color) to staged (green). Then commit to remove the deleted files:

git commit -m "note"

answered Apr 23 '14 at 00:45

Aziz Alto

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Deserves the populist badge. – John May 01 '15 at 16:19
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This is by far the best solution. No scripting hacks, no lengthy process, just a flag to tell git to update its index thoroughly. – Aug 10 '15 at 15:22
Brilliant! Saved me from having to type 20+ file paths. Thanks! – allardbrain Dec 11 '17 at 18:36

score 13 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 11 '13 at 12:46

13

The best solution if you don't care about staging modified files is to use git add -u as said by mshameers and/or pb2q.

If you just want to remove deleted files, but not stage any modified ones, I think you should use the ls-files argument with the --deleted option (no need to use regex or other complex args/options) :

git ls-files --deleted | xargs git rm

answered Jan 11 '13 at 12:46

Byscripts

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`git add -A` solves this issue... just in case any one wants to know in future.[check the below answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/18491743/4693568) – Ja8zyjits Nov 30 '15 at 07:47

Ben James · Answer 6 · 2011-05-14T22:17:03.480

8

Yes, git rm <filename> will stage the deleted state of a file, where <filename> could be a glob pattern:

$ git rm modules/welcome/language/*/kaimonokago_lang.php
rm modules/welcome/language/english/kaimonokago_lang.php
rm modules/welcome/language/french/kaimonokago_lang.php
rm modules/welcome/language/german/kaimonokago_lang.php
rm modules/welcome/language/norwegian/kaimonokago_lang.php

$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#       deleted:    modules/welcome/language/english/kaimonokago_lang.php
#       ...

Then, you can commit.

git commit -a will do this in one go, if you want.

You can also use git add -u to stage all the changes, including all the deleted files, then commit.

edited May 14 '11 at 22:17

answered May 14 '11 at 20:06

Ben James

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so rm . (full stop) delete them at once? – shin May 14 '11 at 20:11
so just git rm will remove all at once? – shin May 14 '11 at 20:13
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You can use a glob-style pattern to remove multiple files; I updated my answer to show an example. – Ben James May 14 '11 at 20:21
5

It seems `git add -u` is exactly what we're looking for - if you make many deletions, then want to commit all the deletions, that appears to be the easiest and most 'standard' way (meaning, without case-specific globs or complex shell parsing into xargs). Is there a reason we wouldn't want to use this, other than the fact that it adds all changes at once? – trisweb Apr 26 '12 at 17:16

score 7 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 26 '14 at 02:01

7

When I have a lot of files I've deleted that are unstaged for commit, you can git rm them all in one show with:

for i in `git status | grep deleted | awk '{print $3}'`; do git rm $i; done

As question answerer mentioned, be careful with git rm.

edited Jun 26 '14 at 02:01

answered Jul 08 '12 at 08:15

Justin Mandzik

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score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 01 '15 at 11:03

5

Try this:

 git rm `git ls-files -d`

answered Oct 01 '15 at 11:03

eludom

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This solved my problem of staging only deleted scripts (using bash) – Mariano Argañaraz Oct 26 '15 at 20:51

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Jan 08 '18 at 19:38

3

If you want to delete all of them by using "git rm". This is what I do:

git ls-files --deleted -z | xargs -0 git rm

This query lists of all the files that have been removed and deletes them from your git repository. Hope it helps.

edited Jan 08 '18 at 19:38

Antoine

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answered Sep 29 '13 at 12:34

DevWL

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score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 25 '14 at 22:17

3

You can use

git commit -m "remove files" -a
git push

After you had delete files manually.

answered Feb 25 '14 at 22:17

onalbi

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Or identically but more succinctly: git commit -am"remove files" – BradChesney79 Feb 28 '15 at 23:26

score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 26 '14 at 01:32

3

You can create a shell script which will remove all your files when run:

git status | grep deleted | awk '{print "git rm " $3;}' > ../remove.sh

The script that is created is remove.sh and it contains the full list of git rm commands.

answered Jun 26 '14 at 01:32

La-comadreja

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score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 12 '12 at 02:12

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git status | sed 's/^#\s*deleted:\s*//' | sed 's/^#.*//' | xargs git rm -rf

answered Nov 12 '12 at 02:12

Boush

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score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 09 '13 at 18:51

2

The built in clean function can also be helpful...

git clean -fd

answered Apr 09 '13 at 18:51

Randall Borck

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This only applies to untracked files. – Elijah Lynn May 15 '13 at 19:34

NetOperator Wibby · Answer 14 · 2016-06-29T14:54:48.040

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I had this issue of ghost files appearing in my repo after I deleted them and came across this neat command!

git add -A

It's essentially the same as git add -a and git add -u combined, but it's case sensitive. I got it from this awesome link (this link points to the version on archive.org now, because the original has converted to a spam/phishing page as of June 2016)

edited Jun 29 '16 at 14:54

answered Aug 28 '13 at 15:10

NetOperator Wibby

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score 2 · Answer 15 · edited Aug 17 '15 at 03:30

2

git add -u .

git add --update .

edited Aug 17 '15 at 03:30

rink.attendant.6

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answered Aug 17 '15 at 01:47

euccas

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 21 '15 at 19:26

Here is how to detect deleted files and stage their deletion as part of the next commit. All the solutions on this thread have different merits. This solution bellow specifically deals with the problem of file names with spaces in them.

git status --porcelain | awk '/^.D .*$/ {print $0}' | sed 's/.D \(.*\)/\1/' | tr -d '"' | xargs -I {} git rm '{}'

make sure you test this with git's --dry-run option before running it with the following:

git status --porcelain | awk '/^.D .*$/ {print $0}' | sed 's/.D \(.*\)/\1/' | tr -d '"' | xargs -I {} git rm --dry-run '{}'

explanation:

git status --porcelain

This prints out something like D "/path to a folder/path to a file" which happens only when there are spaces in the path names

awk '/^.D .*$/ {print $0}'

match only lines that start with " D "

sed 's/ D \(.*\)/\1/'

remove " D " from the front of each string

tr -d '"'

remove quotes, if any

xargs -I {} git rm '{}'

define file name variables as {} run file name under git rm enclosed in single quotes in order to make sure that it supports file names with spaces.

How to remove multiple deleted files in Git repository

16 Answers16

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