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] [--] [<pathspec>...]
  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 `<pathspec>...` arguments are given, only those paths
  24 that match the pathspec are affected.
  25
  26 OPTIONS
  27 -------
  28 -d::
  29         Normally, when no <pathspec> is specified, git clean will not
  30         recurse into untracked directories to avoid removing too much.
  31         Specify -d to have it recurse into such directories as well.
  32         If a <pathspec> is specified, -d is irrelevant; all untracked
  33         files matching the specified paths (with exceptions for nested
  34         git directories mentioned under `--force`) will be removed.
  35
  36 -f::
  37 --force::
  38         If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set
  39         to false, 'git clean' will refuse to delete files or directories
  40         unless given -f.  Git will refuse to modify untracked
  41         nested git repositories (directories with a .git subdirectory)
  42         unless a second -f is given.
  43
  44 -i::
  45 --interactive::
  46         Show what would be done and clean files interactively. See
  47         ``Interactive mode'' for details.
  48         Configuration variable `clean.requireForce` is ignored, as
  49         this mode gives its own safety protection by going interactive.
  50
  51 -n::
  52 --dry-run::
  53         Don't actually remove anything, just show what would be done.
  54         Configuration variable `clean.requireForce` is ignored, as
  55         nothing will be deleted anyway.
  56
  57 -q::
  58 --quiet::
  59         Be quiet, only report errors, but not the files that are
  60         successfully removed.
  61
  62 -e <pattern>::
  63 --exclude=<pattern>::
  64         Use the given exclude pattern in addition to the standard ignore rules
  65         (see linkgit:gitignore[5]).
  66
  67 -x::
  68         Don't use the standard ignore rules (see linkgit:gitignore[5]), but
  69         still use the ignore rules given with `-e` options from the command
  70         line.  This allows removing all untracked
  71         files, including build products.  This can be used (possibly in
  72         conjunction with 'git restore' or 'git reset') to create a pristine
  73         working directory to test a clean build.
  74
  75 -X::
  76         Remove only files ignored by Git.  This may be useful to rebuild
  77         everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.
  78
  79 Interactive mode
  80 ----------------
  81 When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
  82 files and directories to be cleaned, and goes into its
  83 interactive command loop.
  84
  85 The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
  86 gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
  87 with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
  88 and type return, like this:
  89
  90 ------------
  91     *** Commands ***
  92         1: clean                2: filter by pattern    3: select by numbers
  93         4: ask each             5: quit                 6: help
  94     What now> 1
  95 ------------
  96
  97 You also could say `c` or `clean` above as long as the choice is unique.
  98
  99 The main command loop has 6 subcommands.
 100
 101 clean::
 102
 103    Start cleaning files and directories, and then quit.
 104
 105 filter by pattern::
 106
 107    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 108    "Input ignore patterns>>" prompt. You can input space-separated
 109    patterns to exclude files and directories from deletion.
 110    E.g. "*.c *.h" will exclude files ending with ".c" and ".h" from
 111    deletion. When you are satisfied with the filtered result, press
 112    ENTER (empty) back to the main menu.
 113
 114 select by numbers::
 115
 116    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 117    "Select items to delete>>" prompt. When the prompt ends with double
 118    '>>' like this, you can make more than one selection, concatenated
 119    with whitespace or comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9"
 120    to choose 2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a
 121    range is omitted, all remaining items are selected.  E.g. "7-" to
 122    choose 7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
 123    Also when you are satisfied with the filtered result, press ENTER
 124    (empty) back to the main menu.
 125
 126 ask each::
 127
 128   This will start to clean, and you must confirm one by one in order
 129   to delete items. Please note that this action is not as efficient
 130   as the above two actions.
 131
 132 quit::
 133
 134   This lets you quit without doing any cleaning.
 135
 136 help::
 137
 138   Show brief usage of interactive git-clean.
 139
 140 CONFIGURATION
 141 -------------
 142
 143 include::includes/cmd-config-section-all.txt[]
 144
 145 include::config/clean.txt[]
 146
 147 SEE ALSO
 148 --------
 149 linkgit:gitignore[5]
 150
 151 GIT
 152 ---
 153 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite