Git Clean

What is git clean?

git clean deletes untracked files: files in your folder that Git does not track yet.

It is useful when your folder is full of build output, temporary files or experiments you want to throw away.

All examples below start with this project, where only index.html and .gitignore are committed:

git status --short
?? build/
?? draft.txt
?? temp.txt

debug.log is not listed, because .gitignore ignores *.log files.

Dry Run First (-n)

Use -n (dry run) to see what would be deleted, without deleting anything:

git clean -n
Would remove draft.txt
Would remove temp.txt

Folders are not included unless you ask for them with -d.

Delete the Files (-f)

To protect you, git clean does nothing unless you add -f (force):

git clean -f
Removing draft.txt
Removing temp.txt

Include Folders (-d)

Add -d to remove untracked folders too:

git clean -fd
Removing build/
Removing draft.txt
Removing temp.txt

Include Ignored Files (-x)

Ignored files are kept by default. Add -x to remove them as well, for example to start a build from scratch:

git clean -ndx
Would remove build/
Would remove debug.log
Would remove draft.txt
Would remove temp.txt

Use -X (capital X) to remove only the ignored files.

Choose Files Interactively (-i)

Use -i to choose, one by one, which files to delete:

git clean -i

Options Overview

• -n: Dry run, only show what would be removed
• -f: Force, really remove the files
• -d: Also remove untracked folders
• -x: Also remove ignored files
• -X: Remove only ignored files
• -i: Choose interactively