Documentation/git-clean.txt

   1 git-clean(1)
   2 ============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-clean - Remove untracked files from the working tree
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 [verse]
  11 'git clean' [-d] [-f] [-i] [-n] [-q] [-e <pattern>] [-x | -X] [--] <path>...
  12
  13 DESCRIPTION
  14 -----------
  15
  16 Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are not
  17 under version control, starting from the current directory.
  18
  19 Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the `-x`
  20 option is specified, ignored files are also removed. This can, for
  21 example, be useful to remove all build products.
  22
  23 If any optional `<path>...` arguments are given, only those paths
  24 are affected.
  25
  26 OPTIONS
  27 -------
  28 -d::
  29         Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files.
  30         If an untracked directory is managed by a different Git
  31         repository, it is not removed by default.  Use -f option twice
  32         if you really want to remove such a directory.
  33
  34 -f::
  35 --force::
  36         If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set
  37         to false, 'git clean' will refuse to delete files or directories
  38         unless given -f, -n or -i. Git will refuse to delete directories
  39         with .git sub directory or file unless a second -f
  40         is given.
  41
  42 -i::
  43 --interactive::
  44         Show what would be done and clean files interactively. See
  45         ``Interactive mode'' for details.
  46
  47 -n::
  48 --dry-run::
  49         Don't actually remove anything, just show what would be done.
  50
  51 -q::
  52 --quiet::
  53         Be quiet, only report errors, but not the files that are
  54         successfully removed.
  55
  56 -e <pattern>::
  57 --exclude=<pattern>::
  58         In addition to those found in .gitignore (per directory) and
  59         $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, also consider these patterns to be in the
  60         set of the ignore rules in effect.
  61
  62 -x::
  63         Don't use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per
  64         directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore
  65         rules given with `-e` options.  This allows removing all untracked
  66         files, including build products.  This can be used (possibly in
  67         conjunction with 'git restore' or 'git reset') to create a pristine
  68         working directory to test a clean build.
  69
  70 -X::
  71         Remove only files ignored by Git.  This may be useful to rebuild
  72         everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.
  73
  74 Interactive mode
  75 ----------------
  76 When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
  77 files and directories to be cleaned, and goes into its
  78 interactive command loop.
  79
  80 The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
  81 gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
  82 with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
  83 and type return, like this:
  84
  85 ------------
  86     *** Commands ***
  87         1: clean                2: filter by pattern    3: select by numbers
  88         4: ask each             5: quit                 6: help
  89     What now> 1
  90 ------------
  91
  92 You also could say `c` or `clean` above as long as the choice is unique.
  93
  94 The main command loop has 6 subcommands.
  95
  96 clean::
  97
  98    Start cleaning files and directories, and then quit.
  99
 100 filter by pattern::
 101
 102    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 103    "Input ignore patterns>>" prompt. You can input space-separated
 104    patterns to exclude files and directories from deletion.
 105    E.g. "*.c *.h" will excludes files end with ".c" and ".h" from
 106    deletion. When you are satisfied with the filtered result, press
 107    ENTER (empty) back to the main menu.
 108
 109 select by numbers::
 110
 111    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 112    "Select items to delete>>" prompt. When the prompt ends with double
 113    '>>' like this, you can make more than one selection, concatenated
 114    with whitespace or comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9"
 115    to choose 2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a
 116    range is omitted, all remaining items are selected.  E.g. "7-" to
 117    choose 7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
 118    Also when you are satisfied with the filtered result, press ENTER
 119    (empty) back to the main menu.
 120
 121 ask each::
 122
 123   This will start to clean, and you must confirm one by one in order
 124   to delete items. Please note that this action is not as efficient
 125   as the above two actions.
 126
 127 quit::
 128
 129   This lets you quit without do cleaning.
 130
 131 help::
 132
 133   Show brief usage of interactive git-clean.
 134
 135 SEE ALSO
 136 --------
 137 linkgit:gitignore[5]
 138
 139 GIT
 140 ---
 141 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite