Git still showing deleted files after a commit

Question

How can I remove deleted files from my Git repo?

I've deleted a folder of a JavaScript library, which contained many files. I then went to commit the changes like so:

git add .
git commit "message"
git status

But it shows all those files as "deleted ....".

How can I make them go away?

possible duplicate of [Remove all deleted files from "changed but not updated" in Git](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3169787/remove-all-deleted-files-from-changed-but-not-updated-in-git) — Šimon Tóth, Nov 29 '10 at 20:36
possible duplicate of [How do I commit all deleted files in Git?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1402776/how-do-i-commit-all-deleted-files-in-git) — Ben, Aug 29 '13 at 11:51

score 149 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 07 '11 at 20:57

149

This will add deletes as well.

git add -u .

Check what's staged to be committed with:

git status

answered Dec 07 '11 at 20:57

Jamund Ferguson

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git status is showing a file as being deleted when it's still there on the local storage. and running git add doesn't re-add the file, it stages the change to be permanent. how does one modify what change git has automatically detected? – fIwJlxSzApHEZIl Nov 12 '14 at 01:23
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This should be the accepted answer! Worked perfect for my issue. – PlunkettBoy Sep 27 '17 at 18:46
Perfect answer. Thanks. – badhanganesh Oct 14 '17 at 19:30
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Exactly what I was looking for. good job Jamund Ferguson!! – Abdul Salam Jul 01 '21 at 14:42
Worked for me without the dot (`.`). – dz902 Dec 25 '22 at 07:31

cdhowie · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-27T19:07:46.263

41

If it lists the files under the "to be committed" section, then just proceed with the commit; the files will remain deleted. (Git tracks deletions too, not just changes.)

If it lists the files under the "changed but not updated" section, then you have two options:

Undelete them by restoring the version in the index: git checkout path/to/folder
Mark them deleted in Git, then commit: git rm -r path/to/folder

edited Nov 27 '12 at 19:07

answered Nov 29 '10 at 20:27

cdhowie

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I see, and if I have deleted multiple (in all likelihood up to dozens) small files scattered in different folders, do I have to do the git rm for each? Is there a shortcut? Thank You – Nik So Nov 29 '10 at 21:10
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Assuming that you have no other changes to stage, or don't mind staging them, `git add -u` will stage all of the deletions at once. – cdhowie Nov 29 '10 at 21:11

mateostabio · Answer 3 · 2019-04-24T21:51:04.967

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git add -u .

If you type git status and the result says up to date, but in red it says

deleted: folder/example0.jpg
deleted: folder/example1.jpg
deleted: folder/example2.jpg

You need to enter this for it to be removed permanently git add -u . then all the red text will be marked in green.

**** Dont forget the space between the letter u and the period

edited Apr 24 '19 at 21:51

answered Jun 01 '15 at 18:46

mateostabio

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perfectly described and the right one I am looking for – WpTricks24 Aug 07 '15 at 05:14

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 20:25

8

You need to record that they are indeed meant to be deleted. The same way you record file changes.

Just instead of git add, you will use git rm.

answered Nov 29 '10 at 20:25

Šimon Tóth

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 20:26

2

you need to tell git that it is removed

git rm folder

or if you do not want to keep them in repo you can add them to .gitignore

answered Nov 29 '10 at 20:26

mpapis

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 28 '18 at 13:03

I was also having red colored deleted files when I took pull from upstream/master. I tried different things but nothing worked.
Eventually, I had to revert all changes (committed, staged, unstaged) for my forked branch and had to re-sync my repo with the upstream master branch.

git reset --hard upstream/master
git pull upstream master

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 06 '15 at 06:02

0

supposing say you want to remove a file and would not want it to be committed:

use the command:

git reset HEAD filename

and then do a git status to verify if the file to be removed is not appearing

then do a git commit

answered Oct 06 '15 at 06:02

user3572157

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 06 '16 at 03:01

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i find myself have an unexpected 'deleted' folder after i 'rm xxx' to delete some local file.

i first create an temp branch and commit the unwant 'deleted' folder and then delete that temp branch.

answered Apr 06 '16 at 03:01

RyanShao

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Git still showing deleted files after a commit

8 Answers8