Remove file from Version Control in IntelliJ IDEA

Question

I'm using IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2016.1. I've put my project under Git, hosted it on GitHub.

When I first hit that Share Project on GitHub button, every single file was selected to be put under version control.

Now I want to exclude the module IML file from version control. Obliviously, I want to keep it on my hard disk. Unfortunately, I cannot find a way to do this. How do I achieve this?

I tried to delete it from the web interface, but I'm getting some fatal errors while pulling/pushing.

score 75 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 18 '19 at 05:31

75

There is a little trick.

Go to File Menu-> Settings | Version Control | Confirmation, then check the Show options before adding to version control setting under the When files are created section. Alternatively, you could check Do not add. It is mandatory that you do not check Add silently.
Delete the file you don't want to be tracked by VCS.
Press Ctrl + Z to undo the removal of the file. If IDE shows a popup window which lets you choose whether or not to add the new file to VCS, click No.
Commit your local changes, and the files are removed from VCS.

edited Feb 18 '19 at 05:31

chrips

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answered Apr 27 '17 at 03:17

XYz Amos

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This is exactly what i needed. If i undeleted and then tried commit and push got an error. Instead, delete, commit and push, then, with cursor on the package name, undelete but don't add to vc. works great – Slayer6 Feb 17 '18 at 17:16
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IMPORTANT - step delete the files must be done in "Version Control Window" (Alt+9), tab local changes. If you delete files in project tree, there is no ctrl+z to get your files back. – Miro May 21 '19 at 12:20

score 35 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 24 '16 at 11:26

35

Once you commit the file it will begin to be tracked.
In order to remove the file from this point you have to remove them from the repository.

What you need to do now is to delete the entire .idea folder, commit the deletion, add the idea extension to your .gitignore file.

Explaining how to do from command line, can be done via IDEA as well.

# Remove the file from the repository
git rm --cached .idea/

# now update your gitignore file to ignore this folder
echo '.idea' >> .gitignore

# add the .gitignore file
git add .gitignore

git commit -m "Removed .idea files"
git push origin <branch>

edited Mar 24 '16 at 11:26

spongebob

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answered Mar 22 '16 at 19:55

CodeWizard

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How do I access Git Bash from inside IntelliJ IDEA? – spongebob Mar 22 '16 at 20:01
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`View - Tool Windows - Terminal` will open an embedded bash. – Jelle Mar 22 '16 at 20:06
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What you have to remember is this: remove the files and commit the remove and at the same time add it to the ignore file – CodeWizard Mar 22 '16 at 20:10
Hi , what is the harmful of that if we have .idea in remote repository? – milad salimi May 17 '20 at 08:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 22 '19 at 12:46

0

for subversion:

go to file properties context menu > copy path
open terminal use "svn rm --keep-local" to remove

svn rm --keep-local /aa/bb/cc/myfile.txt

answered Aug 22 '19 at 12:46

Gerd

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Remove file from Version Control in IntelliJ IDEA

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