Git: How to remove files that are now in gitignore but were added to repo before

Question

I have a couple of files that are in the repo and also in .gitignore.

I would like these files to be removed from the repo but not be deleted from my production server when I do git pull origin master

I have tried multiple solutions but none seam to work, in each one I end up deleting the files from the server when I do a pull.

References:

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 10 '16 at 14:09

3

AFAIK, there is no way to mark a filepath with a "stop tracking this but keep existing version" flag.

You will need to take one manual action when deploying the first version that includes deleting the file.

Something like :

cp file file.prod
git pull
mv file.prod file

answered Feb 10 '16 at 14:09

LeGEC

This is the first answer I've seen (after hours of searching SO) that seems to address my issue with `git filter-branch --force --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch *.ext' --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all` - specifically that this command also removes files in HEAD, despite the `--cached` flag. I'm confused why `git rm --cached` leaves HEAD alone, but the `git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached...` command does not. – goofology Aug 08 '19 at 05:50

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '16 at 15:01

You need git filter-branch first, then ask everybody to rebase branches created off of your old history.

This is complex, and might cause issue, so next time be careful so not to get there.

If you can't do that due to some reason, then need to wait until time machine invented :)

2 Answers2