NAME

       git-rm - Remove files from the working tree and from the index

SYNOPSIS

       git rm [-f | --force] [-n] [-r] [--cached] [--ignore-unmatch]
                 [--quiet] [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]]
                 [--] [<pathspec>...]

DESCRIPTION

       Remove files matching pathspec from the index, or from the working tree and the index. git rm will not
       remove a file from just your working directory. (There is no option to remove a file only from the
       working tree and yet keep it in the index; use /bin/rm if you want to do that.) The files being removed
       have to be identical to the tip of the branch, and no updates to their contents can be staged in the
       index, though that default behavior can be overridden with the -f option. When --cached is given, the
       staged content has to match either the tip of the branch or the file on disk, allowing the file to be
       removed from just the index. When sparse-checkouts are in use (see git-sparse-checkout(1)), git rm will
       only remove paths within the sparse-checkout patterns.

OPTIONS

       <pathspec>...
           Files to remove. A leading directory name (e.g.  dir to remove dir/file1 and dir/file2) can be given
           to remove all files in the directory, and recursively all sub-directories, but this requires the -r
           option to be explicitly given.

           The command removes only the paths that are known to Git.

           File globbing matches across directory boundaries. Thus, given two directories d and d2, there is a
           difference between using git rm 'd*' and git rm 'd/*', as the former will also remove all of
           directory d2.

           For more details, see the pathspec entry in gitglossary(7).

       -f, --force
           Override the up-to-date check.

       -n, --dry-run
           Don’t actually remove any file(s). Instead, just show if they exist in the index and would otherwise
           be removed by the command.

       -r
           Allow recursive removal when a leading directory name is given.

       --
           This option can be used to separate command-line options from the list of files, (useful when
           filenames might be mistaken for command-line options).

       --cached
           Use this option to unstage and remove paths only from the index. Working tree files, whether modified
           or not, will be left alone.

       --ignore-unmatch
           Exit with a zero status even if no files matched.

       --sparse
           Allow updating index entries outside of the sparse-checkout cone. Normally, git rm refuses to update
           index entries whose paths do not fit within the sparse-checkout cone. See git-sparse-checkout(1) for
           more.

       -q, --quiet
           git rm normally outputs one line (in the form of an rm command) for each file removed. This option
           suppresses that output.

       --pathspec-from-file=<file>
           Pathspec is passed in <file> instead of commandline args. If <file> is exactly - then standard input
           is used. Pathspec elements are separated by LF or CR/LF. Pathspec elements can be quoted as explained
           for the configuration variable core.quotePath (see git-config(1)). See also --pathspec-file-nul and
           global --literal-pathspecs.

       --pathspec-file-nul
           Only meaningful with --pathspec-from-file. Pathspec elements are separated with NUL character and all
           other characters are taken literally (including newlines and quotes).

REMOVING FILES THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED FROM THE FILESYSTEM

       There is no option for git rm to remove from the index only the paths that have disappeared from the
       filesystem. However, depending on the use case, there are several ways that can be done.

   Using “git commit -a”
       If you intend that your next commit should record all modifications of tracked files in the working tree
       and record all removals of files that have been removed from the working tree with rm (as opposed to git
       rm), use git commit -a, as it will automatically notice and record all removals. You can also have a
       similar effect without committing by using git add -u.

   Using “git add -A”
       When accepting a new code drop for a vendor branch, you probably want to record both the removal of paths
       and additions of new paths as well as modifications of existing paths.

       Typically you would first remove all tracked files from the working tree using this command:

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

       and then untar the new code in the working tree. Alternately you could rsync the changes into the working
       tree.

       After that, the easiest way to record all removals, additions, and modifications in the working tree is:

           git add -A

       See git-add(1).

   Other ways
       If all you really want to do is to remove from the index the files that are no longer present in the
       working tree (perhaps because your working tree is dirty so that you cannot use git commit -a), use the
       following command:

           git diff --name-only --diff-filter=D -z | xargs -0 git rm --cached

SUBMODULES

       Only submodules using a gitfile (which means they were cloned with a Git version 1.7.8 or newer) will be
       removed from the work tree, as their repository lives inside the .git directory of the superproject. If a
       submodule (or one of those nested inside it) still uses a .git directory, git rm will move the submodules
       git directory into the superprojects git directory to protect the submodule’s history. If it exists the
       submodule.<name> section in the gitmodules(5) file will also be removed and that file will be staged
       (unless --cached or -n are used).

       A submodule is considered up to date when the HEAD is the same as recorded in the index, no tracked files
       are modified and no untracked files that aren’t ignored are present in the submodules work tree. Ignored
       files are deemed expendable and won’t stop a submodule’s work tree from being removed.

       If you only want to remove the local checkout of a submodule from your work tree without committing the
       removal, use git-submodule(1) deinit instead. Also see gitsubmodules(7) for details on submodule removal.

EXAMPLES

       git rm Documentation/\*.txt
           Removes all *.txt files from the index that are under the Documentation directory and any of its
           subdirectories.

           Note that the asterisk * is quoted from the shell in this example; this lets Git, and not the shell,
           expand the pathnames of files and subdirectories under the Documentation/ directory.

       git rm -f git-*.sh
           Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk (i.e. you are listing the files explicitly),
           it does not remove subdir/git-foo.sh.

BUGS

       Each time a superproject update removes a populated submodule (e.g. when switching between commits before
       and after the removal) a stale submodule checkout will remain in the old location. Removing the old
       directory is only safe when it uses a gitfile, as otherwise the history of the submodule will be deleted
       too. This step will be obsolete when recursive submodule update has been implemented.

SEE ALSO

       git-add(1)

GIT

       Part of the git(1) suite