Cleaning up the local working directory in Git
This article explains how to clean up your local working directory in Git. We will see how to eliminate uncommitted changes and untracked files.
git cleanWe will also remove untracked folders
using the command. Let’s jump right in.
Cleaning up the local working directory in Git
Let's take the following working directory as our working directory.
Let's say we want to clean up everything in our working directory. This means discarding changes made to the README.md file and all untracked files and folders.
What should we do?
There are several commands we can use to process the modified files.
-
We can use
git checkoutthe command. -
git restore <file>Order. -
git reset --hardOrder.
See the example below.
$ git checkout README.md
The above command will reset our README.md file to the last committed state in our repository. It will eliminate the uncommitted changes.
Example 2:
$ git restore README.md
Git recommends using this command. It will discard the changes made to the README.md file in our working directory .
Example 3:
$ git reset --hard
This command comes in handy when we have dozens of files in our working directory. git reset --hardInstead of checking or restoring them one by one, you can run the command.
It will reset our repository to the state of our last commit.
We have seen how to clean up the staging area. What about untracked files and folders?
Before deleting untracked files, it is recommended to do a back check. You can run it cleanthe command with dry run option to see which files and folders will be discarded.
To do this, run:
$ git clean -n -d
Once you are sure you want to remove everything under untracked, run the following command.
$ git clean -f
The above command will delete the files. To delete the folder, run:
$ git clean -f -d
To remove ignored files, run:
$ git clean -f -X
Here is an example.
In short, we can use a few commands to clean up the working directory in Git. git cleanThe command processes all the untracked files and folders.
Always run in dry run mode git cleanto check what will be deleted.
For reprinting, please send an email to 1244347461@qq.com for approval. After obtaining the author's consent, kindly include the source as a link.
Related Articles
Git installation and establishment of local warehouse service
Publish Date：2025/04/05 Views：89 Category：Git
-
Git is a distributed version control system: the client does not only extract the latest version of the file snapshot, but also completely mirrors the original code repository. It has the following advantages: a. Since every extraction oper
git remote operation——multiple remote repositories for one project
Publish Date：2025/04/05 Views：131 Category：Git
-
Multiple remote repositories for a git project In our git project, the command to operate the remote repository information is $ git remote # 查看当前所有的远程仓库的名称 $ git remote -v # 查看远程仓库的名称和远程仓
Git cherry pick command usage
Publish Date：2025/04/05 Views：190 Category：Git
-
git cherry-pick is a powerful command that allows us to select an arbitrary Git commit by reference and attach it to the HEAD of the current working branch. Cherry picking is the act of picking a commit from one branch and applying it to an
Comparison between Git merge and Git rebase
Publish Date：2025/04/05 Views：171 Category：Git
-
The git rebase command may seem like Git wizardry to beginners, but if used carefully, it can actually make life easier for your development team. In this article, we compare git rebase with the related git merge command and identify all th
How to fix Git error Error: src refspec master does not match any
Publish Date：2025/04/05 Views：124 Category：Git
-
When using Git, we may encounter the error "src refspace master does not match any". Here's what the error means and how to fix it. What does src refspec master does not match any Mean in Git mean? We may encounter this error when we try to
Rebase local branch when pulling changes from remote repository branch in Git
Publish Date：2025/04/05 Views：144 Category：Git
-
This article will cover the basics of rebasing your local branch when pulling changes from a remote repository branch in Git. We use the version control system Git to track changes made to files. We commit changes in a local branch in our l
Undo Git Stash
Publish Date：2025/04/04 Views：187 Category：Git
-
This article explains how to make and save changes to a repository. Git allows you to save changes locally and push them to a server when needed. In Git, we don't use the term save , but commit . We use git add , git commit , and git stash
View a list of cache entries in Git
Publish Date：2025/04/04 Views：59 Category：Git
-
We often need to pause our work and focus on something else in our development environment. Therefore, we may need to temporarily save our current work and focus on a different one. We may want to resume our original work later. git stash T
Git stores specific files
Publish Date：2025/04/04 Views：115 Category：Git
-
This article will cover storing changes to only specific files in Git. In Git, when we make some changes in our working tree, we may have some changes which may or may not be staged in our local repo. We may now wish to save these changes f
