How can I delete a file from a Git repository?

Question

I have added a file named \"file1.txt\" to a Git repository. After that, I committed it, added a couple of directories called dir1 and dir2

Answer 1

If you want to delete the file from the repo, but leave it in the the file system (will be untracked):

bykov@gitserver:~/temp> git rm --cached file1.txt
bykov@gitserver:~/temp> git commit -m "remove file1.txt from the repo"

If you want to delete the file from the repo and from the file system then there are two options:

1. If the file has no changes staged in the index:

   bykov@gitserver:~/temp> git rm file1.txt
   bykov@gitserver:~/temp> git commit -m "remove file1.txt"
   

2. If the file has changes staged in the index:

   bykov@gitserver:~/temp> git rm -f file1.txt
   bykov@gitserver:~/temp> git commit -m "remove file1.txt"