Git untracked files

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Git untracked files

Author：JIYIK Last Updated：2025/03/29 Views：

This article explains how to untrack files in Git.

There are two states for files in a git repository: 已跟踪or 未跟踪.

Tracked files are files that Git knows about.

Untracked files are git addfiles that have been created in the working repository but have not yet been added using the command.

Consider this situation.

cd ~
mkdir my-repo
cd my-repo
git init
touch file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m 'First commit'

Git knows about that file.txt, so technically, it's now tracked file.txt.

.gitignoreLater, you want to tell Git to ignore file.txt(or any mistakenly committed file) by adding this file name to

touch .gitignore
echo 'file.txt' >> .gitignore
git add .gitignore && git commit -m 'Ignore file.txt'

what happens?

After committing .gitignore, you file.txtmade changes to , and then git still shows file.txtas being tracked because it still exists in your repository index.

$ echo 'qwe' > file.txt
$ git status
On branch master
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
	modified:   file.txt

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

Untracking files in Git

First, execute the following command.

$ git rm --cache file.txt
rm 'file.txt'
$ git st
On branch master
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage)
	deleted:    file.txt

rmStop tracking and remove the file from the local repository directory.
--cacheThe command rmonly deletes files from the index, not from the local repository.

git rm --cache file.txtfile.txtWill stop tracking it by removing it from the repository index , but leave the file intact.

$ git commit -m 'Remove file.txt from tracking'
[master 4697164] Remove file.txt from tracking
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 file.txt

From now on, Git will not track file.txtany changes made to .

$ echo '123' > file.txt
$ git st
On branch master
nothing to commit, working tree clean

Previous：Git pull does not update files

Next：Remove version tracking from a folder in Git

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