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I put a file that was previously being tracked by Git onto the .gitignore list. However, the file still shows up in git status after it is edited. How do I force Git to completely forget the file?
.gitignore will prevent untracked files from being added (without an add -f) to the set of files tracked by Git. However, Git will continue to track any files that are already being tracked.
To stop tracking a file, we must remove it from the index:
git rm --cached <file>
To remove a folder and all files in the folder recursively:
git rm -r --cached <folder>
The removal of the file from the head revision will happen on the next commit.
WARNING: While this will not remove the physical file from your local machine, it will remove the files from other developers' machines on their next git pull.
The series of commands below will remove all of the items from the Git index (not from the working directory or local repository), and then will update the Git index, while respecting Git ignores. PS. Index = Cache
First:
git rm -r --cached .
git add .
Then:
git commit -am "Remove ignored files"
Or as a one-liner:
git rm -r --cached . && git add . && git commit -am "Remove ignored files"
git update-index does the job for me:
git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>
Note: This solution is actually independent of .gitignore as gitignore is only for untracked files.
Update, a better option
Since this answer was posted, a new option has been created and that should be preferred. You should use --skip-worktree which is for modified tracked files that the user don't want to commit anymore and keep --assume-unchanged for performance to prevent git to check status of big tracked files. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/13631525/717372 for more details...
git update-index --skip-worktree <file>
To cancel
git update-index --no-skip-worktree <file>
git ls-files -c --ignored --exclude-standard -z | xargs -0 git rm --cached
git commit -am "Remove ignored files"
This takes the list of the ignored files, removes them from the index, and commits the changes.
Move it out, commit, and then move it back in.
This has worked for me in the past, but there is probably a 'gittier' way to accomplish this.
I always use this command to remove those untracked files.
One-line, Unix-style, clean output:
git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard | sed 's/.*/"&"/' | xargs git rm -r --cached
It lists all your ignored files, replaces every output line with a quoted line instead to handle paths with spaces inside, and passes everything to git rm -r --cached to remove the paths/files/directories from the index.
The copy/paste (one-liner) answer is:
git rm --cached -r .; git add .; git status; git commit -m "Ignore unwanted files"
This command will NOT change the content of the .gitignore file. It will just ignore the files that have already been committed to a Git repository, but now we have added them to .gitignore.
The command git status; is to review the changes and could be dropped.
Ultimately, it will immediately commit the changes with the message "Ignore unwanted files".
If you don't want to commit the changes, drop the last part of the command (git commit -m "Ignore unwanted files")
Use this when:
You want to untrack a lot of files, or
You updated your .gitignore file
Source: Untrack files already added to Git repository based on .gitignore
Let’s say you have already added/committed some files to your Git repository and you then add them to your .gitignore file; these files will still be present in your repository index. This article we will see how to get rid of them.
Step 1: Commit all your changes
Before proceeding, make sure all your changes are committed, including your .gitignore file.
Step 2: Remove everything from the repository
To clear your repository, use:
git rm -r --cached .
rm is the remove command
-r will allow recursive removal
–cached will only remove files from the index. Your files will still be there.
The rm command can be unforgiving. If you wish to try what it does beforehand, add the -n or --dry-run flag to test things out.
Step 3: Readd everything
git add .
Step 4: Commit
git commit -m ".gitignore fix"
Your repository is clean :)
Push the changes to your remote to see the changes effective there as well.
If you cannot git rm a tracked file because other people might need it (warning, even if you git rm --cached, when someone else gets this change, their files will be deleted in their filesystem). These are often done due to config file overrides, authentication credentials, etc. Please look at https://gist.github.com/1423106 for ways people have worked around the problem.
To summarize:
Have your application look for an ignored file config-overide.ini and use that over the committed file config.ini (or alternately, look for ~/.config/myapp.ini, or $MYCONFIGFILE)
Commit file config-sample.ini and ignore file config.ini, have a script or similar copy the file as necessary if necessary.
Try to use gitattributes clean/smudge magic to apply and remove the changes for you, for instance smudge the config file as a checkout from an alternate branch and clean the config file as a checkout from HEAD. This is tricky stuff, I don't recommend it for the novice user.
Keep the config file on a deploy branch dedicated to it that is never merged to master. When you want to deploy/compile/test you merge to that branch and get that file. This is essentially the smudge/clean approach except using human merge policies and extra-git modules.
Anti-recommentation: Don't use assume-unchanged, it will only end in tears (because having git lie to itself will cause bad things to happen, like your change being lost forever).
I accomplished this by using git filter-branch. The exact command I used was taken from the man page:
WARNING: this will delete the file from your entire history
git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch filename' HEAD
This command will recreate the entire commit history, executing git rm before each commit and so will get rid of the specified file. Don't forget to back it up before running the command as it will be lost.
What didn't work for me
(Under Linux), I wanted to use the posts here suggesting the ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs git rm -r --cached approach. However, (some of) the files to be removed had an embedded newline/LF/\n in their names. Neither of the solutions:
git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -d"\n" git rm --cached
git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard | sed 's/.*/"&"/' | xargs git rm -r --cached
cope with this situation (get errors about files not found).
So I offer
git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git rm -r --cached
git commit -am "Remove ignored files"
This uses the -z argument to ls-files, and the -0 argument to xargs to cater safely/correctly for "nasty" characters in filenames.
In the manual page git-ls-files(1), it states:
When -z option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters in
pathnames are represented as \t, \n, and \\, respectively.
so I think my solution is needed if filenames have any of these characters in them.
Do the following steps for a file/folder:
Remove a File:
need to add that file to .gitignore.
need to remove that file using the command (git rm --cached file name).
need to run (git add .).
need to (commit -m) "file removed".
and finally, (git push).
For example:
I want to delete the test.txt file. I accidentally pushed to GitHub and want to remove it. Commands will be as follows:
First, add "test.txt" in file .gitignore
git rm --cached test.txt
git add .
git commit -m "test.txt removed"
git push
Remove Folder:
need to add that folder to file .gitignore.
need to remove that folder using the command (git rm -r --cached folder name).
need to run (git add .).
need to (commit -m) "folder removed".
and finally, (git push).
For example:
I want to delete the .idea folder/directory. I accidentally pushed to GitHub and want to remove it. The commands will be as follows:
First, add .idea in file .gitignore
git rm -r --cached .idea
git add .
git commit -m ".idea removed"
git push
Update your .gitignore file – for instance, add a folder you don't want to track to .gitignore.
git rm -r --cached . – Remove all tracked files, including wanted and unwanted. Your code will be safe as long as you have saved locally.
git add . – All files will be added back in, except those in .gitignore.
Hat tip to #AkiraYamamoto for pointing us in the right direction.
Do the following steps serially, and you will be fine.
Remove the mistakenly added files from the directory/storage. You can use the "rm -r" (for Linux) command or delete them by browsing the directories. Or move them to another location on your PC. (You maybe need to close the IDE if running for moving/removing.)
Add the files / directories to the .gitignore file now and save it.
Now remove them from the Git cache by using these commands (if there is more than one directory, remove them one by one by repeatedly issuing this command)
git rm -r --cached path-to-those-files
Now do a commit and push by using the following commands. This will remove those files from Git remote and make Git stop tracking those files.
git add .
git commit -m "removed unnecessary files from Git"
git push origin
I think, that maybe Git can't totally forget about a file because of its conception (section "Snapshots, Not Differences").
This problem is absent, for example, when using CVS. CVS stores information as a list of file-based changes. Information for CVS is a set of files and the changes made to each file over time.
But in Git every time you commit, or save the state of your project, it basically takes a picture of what all your files look like at that moment and stores a reference to that snapshot. So, if you added file once, it will always be present in that snapshot.
These two articles were helpful for me:
git assume-unchanged vs skip-worktree and How to ignore changes in tracked files with Git
Basing on it I do the following, if the file is already tracked:
git update-index --skip-worktree <file>
From this moment all local changes in this file will be ignored and will not go to remote. If the file is changed on remote, conflict will occur, when git pull. Stash won't work. To resolve it, copy the file content to the safe place and follow these steps:
git update-index --no-skip-worktree <file>
git stash
git pull
The file content will be replaced by the remote content. Paste your changes from the safe place to the file and perform again:
git update-index --skip-worktree <file>
If everyone, who works with the project, will perform git update-index --skip-worktree <file>, problems with pull should be absent. This solution is OK for configurations files, when every developer has their own project configuration.
It is not very convenient to do this every time, when the file has been changed on remote, but it can protect it from overwriting by remote content.
Using the git rm --cached command does not answer the original question:
How do you force git to completely forget about [a file]?
In fact, this solution will cause the file to be deleted in every other instance of the repository when executing a git pull!
The correct way to force Git to forget about a file is documented by GitHub here.
I recommend reading the documentation, but basically:
git fetch --all
git filter-branch --force --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch full/path/to/file' --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
git push origin --force --all
git push origin --force --tags
git for-each-ref --format='delete %(refname)' refs/original | git update-ref --stdin
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --prune=now
Just replace full/path/to/file with the full path of the file. Make sure you've added the file to your .gitignore file.
You'll also need to (temporarily) allow non-fast-forward pushes to your repository, since you're changing your Git history.
Move or copy the file to a safe location, so you don't lose it. Then 'git rm' the file and commit.
The file will still show up if you revert to one of those earlier commits, or another branch where it has not been removed. However, in all future commits, you will not see the file again. If the file is in the Git ignore, then you can move it back into the folder, and Git won't see it.
The answer from Matt Frear was the most effective IMHO. The following is just a PowerShell script for those on Windows to only remove files from their Git repository that matches their exclusion list.
# Get files matching exclusionsfrom .gitignore
# Excluding comments and empty lines
$ignoreFiles = gc .gitignore | ?{$_ -notmatch "#"} | ?{$_ -match "\S"} | % {
$ignore = "*" + $_ + "*"
(gci -r -i $ignore).FullName
}
$ignoreFiles = $ignoreFiles| ?{$_ -match "\S"}
# Remove each of these file from Git
$ignoreFiles | % { git rm $_}
git add .
The accepted answer does not "make Git "forget" about a file..." (historically). It only makes Git ignore the file in the present/future.
This method makes Git completely forget ignored files (past/present/future), but it does not delete anything from the working directory (even when re-pulled from remote).
This method requires usage of file /.git/info/exclude (preferred) or a pre-existing .gitignore in all the commits that have files to be ignored/forgotten. 1
All methods of enforcing Git ignore behavior after-the-fact effectively rewrite history and thus have significant ramifications for any public/shared/collaborative repositories that might be pulled after this process. 2
General advice: start with a clean repository - everything committed, nothing pending in working directory or index, and make a backup!
Also, the comments/revision history of this answer (and revision history of this question) may be useful/enlightening.
#Commit up-to-date .gitignore (if not already existing)
#This command must be run on each branch
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "Create .gitignore"
#Apply standard Git ignore behavior only to the current index, not the working directory (--cached)
#If this command returns nothing, ensure /.git/info/exclude AND/OR .gitignore exist
#This command must be run on each branch
git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git rm --cached
#Commit to prevent working directory data loss!
#This commit will be automatically deleted by the --prune-empty flag in the following command
#This command must be run on each branch
git commit -m "ignored index"
#Apply standard git ignore behavior RETROACTIVELY to all commits from all branches (--all)
#This step WILL delete ignored files from working directory UNLESS they have been dereferenced from the index by the commit above
#This step will also delete any "empty" commits. If deliberate "empty" commits should be kept, remove --prune-empty and instead run git reset HEAD^ immediately after this command
git filter-branch --tree-filter 'git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git rm -f --ignore-unmatch' --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
#List all still-existing files that are now ignored properly
#If this command returns nothing, it's time to restore from backup and start over
#This command must be run on each branch
git ls-files --other --ignored --exclude-standard
Finally, follow the rest of this GitHub guide (starting at step 6) which includes important warnings/information about the commands below.
git push origin --force --all
git push origin --force --tags
git for-each-ref --format="delete %(refname)" refs/original | git update-ref --stdin
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --prune=now
Other developers that pull from the now-modified remote repository should make a backup and then:
#fetch modified remote
git fetch --all
#"Pull" changes WITHOUT deleting newly-ignored files from working directory
#This will overwrite local tracked files with remote - ensure any local modifications are backed-up/stashed
git reset FETCH_HEAD
Footnotes
1 Because /.git/info/exclude can be applied to all historical commits using the instructions above, perhaps details about getting a .gitignore file into the historical commit(s) that need it is beyond the scope of this answer. I wanted a proper .gitignore file to be in the root commit, as if it was the first thing I did. Others may not care since /.git/info/exclude can accomplish the same thing regardless where the .gitignore file exists in the commit history, and clearly rewriting history is a very touchy subject, even when aware of the ramifications.
FWIW, potential methods may include git rebase or a git filter-branch that copies an external .gitignore into each commit, like the answers to this question.
2 Enforcing Git ignore behavior after-the-fact by committing the results of a stand-alone git rm --cached command may result in newly-ignored file deletion in future pulls from the force-pushed remote. The --prune-empty flag in the following git filter-branch command avoids this problem by automatically removing the previous "delete all ignored files" index-only commit. Rewriting Git history also changes commit hashes, which will wreak havoc on future pulls from public/shared/collaborative repositories. Please understand the ramifications fully before doing this to such a repository. This GitHub guide specifies the following:
Tell your collaborators to rebase, not merge, any branches they created off of your old (tainted) repository history. One merge commit could reintroduce some or all of the tainted history that you just went to the trouble of purging.
Alternative solutions that do not affect the remote repository are git update-index --assume-unchanged </path/file> or git update-index --skip-worktree <file>, examples of which can be found here.
In my case I needed to put ".envrc" in the .gitignore file.
And then I used:
git update-index --skip-worktree .envrc
git rm --cached .envrc
And the file was removed.
Then I committed again, telling that the file was removed.
But when I used the command git log -p, the content of the file (which was secret credentials of the Amazon S3) was showing the content which was removed and I don't want to show this content ever on the history of the Git repository.
Then I used this command:
git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch .envrc' HEAD
And I don't see the content again.
I liked JonBrave's answer, but I have messy enough working directories that commit -a scares me a bit, so here's what I've done:
git config --global alias.exclude-ignored '!git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git rm -r --cached && git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git stage && git stage .gitignore && git commit -m "new gitignore and remove ignored files from index"'
Breaking it down:
git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git rm -r --cached
git ls-files -z --ignored --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git stage
git stage .gitignore
git commit -m "new gitignore and remove ignored files from index"
remove ignored files from the index
stage .gitignore and the files you just removed
commit
The BFG is specifically designed for removing unwanted data like big files or passwords from Git repositories, so it has a simple flag that will remove any large historical (not-in-your-current-commit) files: '--strip-blobs-bigger-than'
java -jar bfg.jar --strip-blobs-bigger-than 100M
If you'd like to specify files by name, you can do that too:
java -jar bfg.jar --delete-files *.mp4
The BFG is 10-1000x faster than git filter-branch and is generally much easier to use - check the full usage instructions and examples for more details.
Source: Reduce repository size
If you don't want to use the CLI and are working on Windows, a very simple solution is to use TortoiseGit. It has the "Delete (keep local)" Action in the menu which works fine.
This is no longer an issue in the latest Git (v2.17.1 at the time of writing).
The .gitignore file finally ignores tracked-but-deleted files. You can test this for yourself by running the following script. The final git status statement should report "nothing to commit".
# Create an empty repository
mkdir gitignore-test
cd gitignore-test
git init
# Create a file and commit it
echo "hello" > file
git add file
git commit -m initial
# Add the file to gitignore and commit
echo "file" > .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit -m gitignore
# Remove the file and commit
git rm file
git commit -m "removed file"
# Reintroduce the file and check status.
# .gitignore is now respected - status reports "nothing to commit".
echo "hello" > file
git status
This is how I solved my issue:
git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm -rf path/to/your/file' HEAD
git push
In this, we are basically trying to rewrite the history of that particular file in previous commits also.
For more information, you can refer to the man page of filter-branch here.
Source: Removing sensitive data from a repository - using filter-branch
Source: Git: How to remove a big file wrongly committed
In case of already committed DS_Store:
find . -name .DS_Store -print0 | xargs -0 git rm --ignore-unmatch
Ignore them by:
echo ".DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
echo "._.DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
echo "**/.DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
echo "**/._.DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global
Finally, make a commit!
Especially for the IDE-based files, I use this:
For instance, for the slnx.sqlite file, I just got rid off it completely like the following:
git rm {PATH_OF_THE_FILE}/slnx.sqlite -f
git commit -m "remove slnx.sqlite"
Just keep that in mind that some of those files store some local user settings and preferences for projects (like what files you had open). So every time you navigate or do some changes in your IDE, that file is changed and therefore it checks it out and show as uncommitted changes.
If anyone is having a hard time on Windows and you want to ignore the entire folder, go to the desired 'folder' on file explorer, right click and do 'Git Bash Here' (Git for Windows should have been installed).
Run this command:
git ls-files -z | xargs -0 git update-index --assume-unchanged
For me, the file was still available in the history and I first needed to squash the commits that added the removed files: https://gist.github.com/patik/b8a9dc5cd356f9f6f980
Combine the commits. The example below combines the last 3 commits
git reset --soft HEAD~3
git commit -m "New message for the combined commit"
Push the squashed commit
If the commits have been pushed to the remote:
git push origin +name-of-branch
In my case here, I had several .lock files in several directories that I needed to remove. I ran the following and it worked without having to go into each directory to remove them:
git rm -r --cached **/*.lock
Doing this went into each folder under the 'root' of where I was at and excluded all files that matched the pattern.
I have recently pushed to github, and see a white arrow on one of my folders.
and when i click on the folder, it does not open it. On my local machine, it has contents, but in github i cannot access them. What does this mean?
Symptom
Check if locally you have a .git/ sub-folder under that folder.
Cause
That would mean the folder (locally) is a nested Git repository, whose tree SHA1 is recorded as a "gitlink" (gray folder with straight white arrow)
What you would then see on GitHub is that gitlink: SHA-1 of the object refers to a commit in another repository, represented by an empty folder name. It is a nested Git repository.
If you see a folder # xxx, then it is a submodule entry, meaning your own repository has a .gitmodules in it, which records, in addition of the gitlink, the actual URL of the remote repository.
It represents the object name of the commit that the super-project expects the nested submodule's working directory to be at.
In both cases (white arrow with a folder name, or white arrow with folder # xxx, folder name and version), it is a Gitlink represented a nested Git repository: a placeholder for another Git repository, hence an empty folder. But in the second case, that empty folder would be referenced/visible in a special .gitmodules file.
Solution (to remove the white arrow)
In order to restore that folder content:
submodule:
A git clone --recurse-submodules would restore the content of that submodule in your local repository (as opposed to a nested Git repo, where its URL is not recorded, and the content of the folder would remain empty)
The white arrow would remain on the remote repository, with folder # version displaying what SHA1 of the submodule repository is referenced by your project.
Nested Git repository:
Alternatively, you could, if you don't care about the history of that folder, delete locally its .git subfolder (assuming it is not a submodule, meaning it is not referenced in a .gitmodules file in your main repository), add, commit and push.
The white arrow would then disappear, and you would be able to access that folder content on GitHub.
Then you would need to delete the gitlink entry:
git rm --cache client_folder
# without a trailing slash:
# not client_folder/ but client_folder
Finally, you can add, commit and push that folder content.
The arrow may mean that is a submodule.
You could try:
git add yourfolder
If that results in an error like:
xxx submodule xxx
appears, you may try this:
git rm --cached yourfolder
Then, you could successfully run:
git add yourfolder
On your machine, if you navigated to the directory with the arrow and tried to view hidden files, you'd see a .git folder, indicating that it is a repository. This means that it is a repo contained inside the outer repo that you had pushed to GitHub.
The easiest way to get rid of the arrow and start seeing your files properly (in my opinion) is by deleting the .git folder. That way, it ceases to become a git repo and is a regular folder once more.
Now when you push to GitHub, you can normally access the folder and view all its contents.
If you want to remove a submodule from the git config files, Follow this, remember that if you DON'T want to delete the local directory of that submodule, DON'T do Step X:
Delete the relevant section from the .gitmodules file.
Stage the .gitmodules changes git add .gitmodules
Delete the relevant section from .git/config.
Run git rm --cached path_to_submodule (no trailing slash).
Run rm -rf .git/modules/path_to_submodule (no trailing slash).
Commit git commit -m "Removed submodule "
(Risky)Step X :- Delete the now untracked submodule files rm -rf path_to_submodule
In my case:
git rm --cached portal
ls
git status
git add --all
...
for me, the history of changes in the subfolders were no longer important
start by removing .git from the subfolder
git rm --cached myfolder
git add myfolder
git commit -m "making myfolder available"
git push
It's due to the .git file in some of your subfolders. If you cannot find it then follow these steps....
Click file option Click this image - 1
Go to Preferences , then click settings Click this image - 2
Look for text editor, then click files Scroll down to check .git in Exclude
section. Click this image - 3
If .git is present, then remove it.
Now you will find .git folder in your main or sub folder....delete it and upload the folder to GitHub.
THIS WORKED FOR ME !!
Go to your project folder.
Go to "View" from the nav bar, go to "Show" and check "Hidden Items".
Delete all the ".git" folders from your project.
Initialize new or existing repo again and push your code.
I am renaming all my component names and folders. All of them start with a small letter. I am capitalizing them. The way I am currently doing is for the folder names I am writing
git mv folder test
git mv test Folder
as for the files directyl
git mv file File
I have a folder that contains around 50 folders and 200 sub-files. Can I automate this? I need to capitalize all them with git mv so that Github detects the changes. I use windows 10.
Of course there are ways to automate it. Since you're apparently a JavaScript dev, you could look into the Node.js APIs;
fs.readdir to read each name in a directory
child_process.spawn to run git mv ... ...
I am quite new to github and I am trying to find a solution to a current problem that I am having. I will go through my process step by step:
First I created a new folder named [project name]
Next I used these commands:
cd [project name]
git clone [remote project from github url]
So far I have created a folder and cloned a project that my group is working on in github.
Next, I went inside that folder and created an angular project with
ng new [angulartest]
This will create all the components of my angular test into the same folder that is the clone of the one from github.
Finally, I pushed the new angular test on github with
git add [angulartest]
git commit
git push
What happens is that it only pushes the folder [angulartest] but none of its contents (even though there are contents in it). When I try to pull from its contents, I still just get an empty folder in return.
When I try to enter that folder and add each element of the contents, using these steps:
cd [angulartest]
git add e2e, src, nodemodules, etc
git commit
git push
It gives me the following error (even when I try to add each element individually):
fatal: in unpopulated submodule [angulartest]
I was wondering if it was a problem with my git syntax, the angular project, or the way I tried to clone the project. That way, I know which direction I want to be headed when looking for a solution.
It seems like, you may have removed the .git folder. In that case you can try
git rm --cached angulartest -f
git rm --cached . -rf
Stealing from anlijudavid's comment which was the actual answer for me on macOS with zsh.
Adding -r based on Richard Collette's comment to this answer.
The root cause of this error in my case was that I have a subdirectory with its own .git folder inside. When I issued the git add --all command, I got this same error
Here's how I resolved the issue
Remove all .git folder inside the sub directory causing the error
cd to the main directory
git rm --cached sub_directory_name -f
git add --all to add the subdirectory and contents, recursively
git status to verify that the items are added
I almost got a headache with this error but thanks for the previous answers, a combination of those worked for me.
Here's what I did
Make a copy of the 'submodule' directory somewhere outside of the repository (e.g. your desktop)
Delete the submodule directory from your repo
Commit the repo
Go into the copy you made of your submodule directory, delete .gitignore file and .git directory
Copy the submodule directory back into your repo and commit
This meant I lost the commit history of the submodule but at least it fixed the issue of my files in the submodule not going to git!
If we cloned from third party repository we got this " fatal: in unpopulated submodule 'submodule name' " error.
This error fix for me using
git rm --cached <submodule name> -f
Also you can remove .git folder manually then you can try to git add
I got the same error when I had a subdirectory in my local repo, had deleted the .git to solve different issue, and then tried to add an updated html file to my repo.
I went to github and uploaded the file using their GUI. Now I can see that everyhting matches and git status shows no issues.
Had the same issue when trying to push a new react-app folder to git.
Unfortanately, I overlooked the ".gitignore" files in the folders.
First check for files:
find | grep -w ".gitignore" | xargs ls -lh
After that:
find | grep -w ".gitignore" | xargs rm -fr
The command git clone git#github.com:whatever creates a directory named whatever containing a Git repository:
./
whatever/
.git
I want the contents of the Git repository cloned into my current directory ./ instead:
./
.git
Option A:
git clone git#github.com:whatever folder-name
Ergo, for right here use:
git clone git#github.com:whatever .
Option B:
Move the .git folder, too. Note that the .git folder is hidden in most graphical file explorers, so be sure to show hidden files.
mv /where/it/is/right/now/* /where/I/want/it/
mv /where/it/is/right/now/.* /where/I/want/it/
The first line grabs all normal files, the second line grabs dot-files. It is also possibe to do it in one line by enabling dotglob (i.e. shopt -s dotglob) but that is probably a bad solution if you are asking the question this answer answers.
Better yet:
Keep your working copy somewhere else, and create a symbolic link. Like this:
ln -s /where/it/is/right/now /the/path/I/want/to/use
For your case this would be something like:
ln -sfn /opt/projectA/prod/public /httpdocs/public
Which easily could be changed to test if you wanted it, i.e.:
ln -sfn /opt/projectA/test/public /httpdocs/public
without moving files around. Added -fn in case someone is copying these lines (-f is force, -n avoid some often unwanted interactions with already and non-existing links).
If you just want it to work, use Option A, if someone else is going to look at what you have done, use Option C.
The example I think a lot of people asking this question are after is this. If you are in the directory you want the contents of the git repository dumped to, run:
git clone git#github.com:whatever .
The "." at the end specifies the current folder as the checkout folder.
Go into the folder.. If the folder is empty, then:
git clone git#github.com:whatever .
else
git init
git remote add origin PATH/TO/REPO
git fetch
git checkout -t origin/master
Basic Git Repository Cloning
You clone a repository with
git clone [url]
For example, if you want to clone the Stanford University Drupal Open Framework Git library called open_framework, you can do so like this:
$ git clone git://github.com/SU-SWS/open_framework.git
That creates a directory named open_framework (at your current local file system location), initializes a .git directory inside it, pulls down all the data for that repository, and checks out a working copy of the latest version. If you go into the newly created open_framework directory, you’ll see the project files in there, ready to be worked on or used.
Cloning a Repository Into a Specific Local Folder
If you want to clone the repository into a directory named something other than open_framework, you can specify that as the next command-line option:
$ git clone git:github.com/SU-SWS/open_framework.git mynewtheme
That command does the same thing as the previous one, but the target directory is called mynewtheme.
Git has a number of different transfer protocols you can use. The previous example uses the git:// protocol, but you may also see http(s):// or user#server:/path.git, which uses the SSH transfer protocol.
You can use following git command to clone with custom directory name
git clone <git_repo_url> <your_custom_directory_name>
Note: You don't need to create your custom directory because it will create automatically
To clone git repository into a specific folder, you can use -C <path> parameter, e.g.
git -C /httpdocs clone git#github.com:whatever
Although it'll still create a whatever folder on top of it, so to clone the content of the repository into current directory, use the following syntax:
cd /httpdocs
git clone git#github.com:whatever .
Note that cloning into an existing directory is only allowed when the directory is empty.
Since you're cloning into folder that is accessible for public, consider separating your Git repository from your working tree by using --separate-git-dir=<git dir> or exclude .git folder in your web server configuration (e.g. in .htaccess file).
To clone to Present Working Directory:
git clone https://github.com/link.git
To clone to Another Directory:
git clone https://github.com/link.git ./Folder1/Folder2
Hope it Helps :)
If you want to clone into the current folder, you should try this:
git clone https://github.com/example/example.git ./
When you move the files to where you want them, are you also moving the .git directory? Depending on your OS and configuration, this directory may be hidden.
It contains the repo and the supporting files, while the project files that are in your /public directory are only the versions in the currently check-out commit (master branch by default).
Usage
git clone <repository>
Clone the repository located at the <repository> onto the local machine. The original repository can be located on the local filesystem or on a remote machine accessible via HTTP or SSH.
git clone <repo> <directory>
Clone the repository located at <repository> into the folder called <directory> on the local machine.
Source: Setting up a repository
Clone:
git clone git#jittre.unfuddle.com:jittre/name.git
Clone the "specific branch":
git clone -b [branch-name] git#jittre.unfuddle.com:jittre/name.git
Make sure you remove the .git repository if you are trying to check thing out into the current directory.
rm -rf .git then git clone https://github.com/symfony/symfony-sandbox.git
From some reason this syntax is not standing out:
git clone repo-url [folder]
Here folder is an optional path to the local folder (which will be a local repository).
Git clone will also pull code from remote repository into the local repository.
In fact it is true:
git clone repo-url = git init + git remote add origin repo-url + git pull
Here's how I would do it, but I have made an alias to do it for me.
$ cd ~Downloads/git; git clone https:git.foo/poo.git
There is probably a more elegant way of doing this, however I found this to be easiest for myself.
Here's the alias I created to speed things along. I made it for zsh, but it should work just fine for bash or any other shell like fish, xyzsh, fizsh, and so on.
Edit ~/.zshrc, /.bashrc, etc. with your favorite editor (mine is Leafpad, so I would write $ leafpad ~/.zshrc).
My personal preference, however, is to make a zsh plugin to keep track of all my aliases. You can create a personal plugin for oh-my-zsh by running these commands:
$ cd ~/.oh-my-zsh/
$ cd plugins/
$ mkdir your-aliases-folder-name; cd your-aliases-folder-name
# In my case '~/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/ev-aliases/ev-aliases'
$ leafpad your-zsh-aliases.plugin.zsh
# Again, in my case 'ev-aliases.plugin.zsh'
Afterwards, add these lines to your newly created blank alises.plugin file:
# Git aliases
alias gc="cd ~/Downloads/git; git clone "
(From here, replace your name with mine.)
Then, in order to get the aliases to work, they (along with zsh) have to be sourced-in (or whatever it's called). To do so, inside your custom plugin document add this:
## Ev's Aliases
#### Remember to re-source zsh after making any changes with these commands:
#### These commands should also work, assuming ev-aliases have already been sourced before:
allsource="source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh ; source /home/ev/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/ev-aliases/ev-aliases.plugin.zsh; clear"
sourceall="source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh ; source /home/ev/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/ev-aliases/ev-aliases.plugin.zsh"
####
####################################
# git aliases
alias gc="cd ~/Downloads/git; git clone "
# alias gc="git clone "
# alias gc="cd /your/git/folder/or/whatever; git clone "
####################################
Save your oh-my-zsh plugin, and run allsource. If that does not seem to work, simply run source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh; source /home/ev/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/ev-aliases/ev-aliases.plugin.zsh. That will load the plugin source which will allow you to use allsource from now on.
I'm in the process of making a Git repository with all of my aliases. Please feel free to check them out here: Ev's dot-files. Please feel free to fork and improve upon them to suit your needs.
If you are in the directory you want the contents of the git repository dumped to, run:
git clone git#github.com:origin .
The "." at the end specifies the current folder as the checkout folder.
If you are using ssh for git cloning you can use the following command.
git -C path clone git#github.com:path_to_repo.git
eg:
git -C /home/ubuntu/ clone git#github.com:kennethreitz/requests.git would pull the git repository for requests to your /home/ubuntu/ path.
go to the directory where you want to clone the repo.
(don't run git init command inside that directory)
simply run the command,
git clone <git repo url> .
Example: git clone https://github.com/Rashmi-Wijesekara/portfolio.git .
Although all of the answers above are good, I would like to propose a new method instead of using the symbolic link method in public html directory as proposed BEST in the accepted answer. You need to have access to your server virtual host configurations.
It is about configuring virtual host of your web server directly pointing to the repository directory. In Apache you can do it like:
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/website/your-git-repo
Here is an example of a virtual host file:
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName example.com
DocumentRoot /path/to/your-git-repo
...
...
...
...
</VirtualHost>
If you use github cli you can use the following command:
gh repo clone <repository> [<directory>] [-- <gitflags>...]
So for example you can run this:
gh repo clone repository-name-on-github my-local-folder
For Windows user
1> Open command prompt.
2> Change the directory to destination folder (Where you want to store your project in local machine.)
3> Now go to project setting online(From where you want to clone)
4> Click on clone, and copy the clone command.
5> Now enter the same on cmd .
It will start cloning saving on the selected folder you given .
Regarding this line from the original post:
"I know how to move the files after I've cloned the repo, but this
seems to break git"
I am able to do that and I don't see any issues so far with my add, commit, push, pull operations.
This approach is stated above, but just not broken down into steps.
Here's the steps that work for me:
clone the repo into any fresh temporary folder
cd into that root folder you just cloned locally
copy the entire contents of the folder, including the /.git directory - into any existing folder you like; (say an eclipse project that you want to merge with your repo)
The existing folder you just copied the files into , is now ready to interact with git.