How do I remove an empty folder and push that change?

Question

How can I remove an empty folder locally and also have that happen for other collaborators that share the remote via pull-push? I know that folders aren't 'tracked' in that sense by git but the question remains.

e.g. I moved a file to another folder and committed the change (of the move).

But I can't git rm name the folder as I get "doesn't match" git rmdir name doesn't exist.

I can do a git clean -f folder but how does that get pushed up?

I can directly rm the file but how do I get that directory removal done correctly and pushed to the repository and then out to others when they pull so that their existing folder gets deleted.

what do you mean the question remains? – manojlds Apr 09 '12 at 14:53 — manojlds, Apr 09 '12 at 14:53

score 154 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 09 '19 at 21:31

154

The short answer: You can't push changes to directories (added, removed, etc.) because Git does not track directories on their own.

According to the FAQ:

Currently the design of the git index (staging area) only permits files to be listed, and nobody competent enough to make the change to allow empty directories has cared enough about this situation to remedy it.

Directories are added automatically when adding files inside them. That is, directories never have to be added to the repository, and are not tracked on their own.

So as far as Git is concerned, your empty directory doesn't exist anymore.

I have found that getting in the habit of using git clean -fd removes the need for pushing the removal of directories. However, git clean can remove items you may not want removed (including any new files you have not yet committed) so I tend to first use git clean -fdn to see what will be removed if I use the command.

It looks like you may be forced to talk to your fellow developers in order to clean up that directory.

edited Dec 09 '19 at 21:31

saastn

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answered Apr 09 '12 at 15:24

Jake Greene

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Mercurial has a saner approach here - the directory is remove if empty: http://stackoverflow.com/a/3917322/913223 and http://superuser.com/questions/81204/how-to-add-an-empty-folder-in-a-mercurial-project – Daniel Sokolowski Aug 05 '15 at 23:01
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This answer is incomplete. The `git svn fetch` does maintain empty folders. Even `git svn rebase` recreate empty folders if simply remove one. – Andry Jul 30 '17 at 01:13
@DanielSokolowski, is that the same approach in git, atleast when cloning a repo. I found that when cloning a repo containing a empty directory, git doesn't create the empty directory. Is this not a big issue, because now I have to check that the directory exists for writing files? – alpha_989 Apr 07 '18 at 22:34
In my case I needed to supply -x in addition to -fd because my "empty" directories had ignored `.DS_Store` files in them. "Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the -x option is specified, ignored files are also removed." – lmsurprenant Aug 30 '23 at 17:57

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '16 at 00:14

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git add --all
git clean -f -d
git commit -m "trying to remove folders"
git push

answered Feb 28 '16 at 00:14

Ekhtiar

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Is there a way of achieving this without the need to commit and push changes? – Benjamin John Apr 20 '20 at 13:50
You do not need to commit. The last 2 commands are not required – Izhar Aazmi Jun 09 '21 at 12:56
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`git clean -i -d` would be nicer. – user2987828 Dec 13 '21 at 16:57

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 26 '16 at 10:53

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You can't push empty folders. But if you want to clean out empty folders in your cloned/local repo, commit your latest changes.. Then simply delete all the files apart from .git folder in your local copy. Then reset all changes again, which puts back all the files but leaves out the empty directories it doesn't track.

answered Jul 26 '16 at 10:53

Rich

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Or just use `git clean -fd` – Aaron Franke Jan 27 '20 at 11:04
In my case, this worked, and the git clean -fd did not work. I am still figuring out why that is the case. – Dirk Roorda Sep 12 '22 at 06:23
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It turns out, I have .DS-Store files in my "empty" directories. However, these files are in the .gitignore, so I think they are not tracked and should be deleted. But I have to supply an etra flag `-x`. The manual of git-clean says ``` Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the -x option is specified, ignored files are also removed. This can, for example, be useful to remove all build products. ``` – Dirk Roorda Sep 12 '22 at 07:03

score -7 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 29 '14 at 15:04

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A slightly hacky way around this is to create a fake file in the directory, commit it, then remove it. Removing it will also remove the directory. So create name/fake.txt

git add name/fake.txt
git commit -m "message"
git rm name/fake.txt
git commit -m "message2"

answered Jul 29 '14 at 15:04

Graeme Hunter

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This approach does in fact work, but on the second step you want to delete the folder containing the file `rm -rf name` and then commit the change, the folder will now be gone – igniteflow Jan 20 '15 at 13:01
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creates unnecessary commits – joel Nov 30 '18 at 14:27
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I think this is actually the correct answer. OP wants the directory to disappear for all others without them running commands on their machines other than pull. – StaNov Oct 26 '21 at 08:17

How do I remove an empty folder and push that change?

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