Git: How to remove ignored files from your repository's directory

When you have files in your .gitignore they won't be considered for changes, but still you might want to get rid of them, e.g. because they clutter your file system.

While a regular git clean will ignore them as well, passing the -x switch changes that:

git clean -x

If you want to see what would happen first, make sure to pass the -n switch for a dry run:

git clean -xn

Clean even harder by passing the -f (force cleaning under certain circumstances; I think this is also required by default) or -d (removes directories) switches:

git clean -xdf

Careful: You may be ignoring local config files like database.yml which would also be removed. Use at your own risk.

Arne Hartherz Over 10 years ago