Remove and rename

Your diary needs a clean-up. An old notes file. A page with a clumsy name. A log you saved by mistake. How do you tell Git?

~/diary $ git rm old-notes.txtrm 'old-notes.txt'~/diary $ git status -sD  old-notes.txt

git rm deletes a file and puts the deletion in the box. Your next commit saves it as gone.

Delete old-notes.txt the Git way.

You run git rm --cached debug.log. Is debug.log still in your folder?

~/diary $ git rm --cached debug.logrm 'debug.log'~/diary $ git status -sD  debug.log~/diary $ lsaboutme.html  debug.log  index.html  old-notes.txt  README.md

git rm --cached means: stop tracking, but keep the file. Perfect for things you saved by mistake. Your .gitignore keeps it hidden after.

~/diary $ git mv aboutme.html about.html~/diary $ git status -sR  aboutme.html -> about.html

git mv renames a file and tells Git in one step. The R in status means renamed.

Rename aboutme.html to about.html. Then commit it.

You can now delete, untrack and rename files without confusing Git.