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

  • By
    9 Mind-Blowing WebGL Demos

    As much as developers now loathe Flash, we're still playing a bit of catch up to natively duplicate the animation capabilities that Adobe's old technology provided us.  Of course we have canvas, an awesome technology, one which I highlighted 9 mind-blowing demos.  Another technology available...

  • By
    Responsive Images: The Ultimate Guide

    Chances are that any Web designers using our Ghostlab browser testing app, which allows seamless testing across all devices simultaneously, will have worked with responsive design in some shape or form. And as today's websites and devices become ever more varied, a plethora of responsive images...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Resize an Image Using Canvas, Drag and Drop and the File API

    Recently I was asked to create a user interface that allows someone to upload an image to a server (among other things) so that it could be used in the various web sites my company provides to its clients. Normally this would be an easy task—create a...

  • By
    MooTools CountDown Plugin

    There are numerous websites around the internet, RapidShare for example, that make you wait an allotted amount of time before presenting you with your reward. Using MooTools, I've created a CountDown plugin that allows you to easily implement a similar system. The MooTools JavaScript The CountDown class...

Discussion

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