git: Remove Untracked Files

By  on  

I've always said that I know just enough about git to get the job done, but also do something destructive. Nothing embodies that more than my recent mistake. I somehow found a git repository full of untracked files and git stash wouldn't fix it. Desperation led me to learning how to remove all untracked files, the same way hg purge does for mercurial.

To remove untracked files and directories, you can execute:

# Remove untracked directories
git clean -fd

# Remove only untracked files
git clean -fX

There you have it -- you've removed your untracked files. The dangerous side? It will also delete files hidden by .gitignore when you run a git status. Be careful when removing untracked files!

Recent Features

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Duplicate the jQuery Homepage Tooltips Using MooTools

    The jQuery homepage has a pretty suave tooltip-like effect as seen below: Here's how to accomplish this same effect using MooTools. The XHTML The above XHTML was taken directly from the jQuery homepage -- no changes. The CSS The above CSS has been slightly modified to match the CSS rules already...

  • By
    Drag & Drop Elements to the Trash with MooTools 1.2

    Everyone loves dragging garbage files from their desktop into their trash can. There's a certain amount of irony in doing something on your computer that you also do in real life. It's also a quick way to get rid of things. That's...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!