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         Use the given exclude pattern in addition to the standard ignore rules
  59         (see linkgit:gitignore[5]).
  60
  61 -x::
  62         Don't use the standard ignore rules (see linkgit:gitignore[5]), but
  63         still use the ignore rules given with `-e` options from the command
  64         line.  This allows removing all untracked
  65         files, including build products.  This can be used (possibly in
  66         conjunction with 'git restore' or 'git reset') to create a pristine
  67         working directory to test a clean build.
  68
  69 -X::
  70         Remove only files ignored by Git.  This may be useful to rebuild
  71         everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.
  72
  73 Interactive mode
  74 ----------------
  75 When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
  76 files and directories to be cleaned, and goes into its
  77 interactive command loop.
  78
  79 The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
  80 gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
  81 with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
  82 and type return, like this:
  83
  84 ------------
  85     *** Commands ***
  86         1: clean                2: filter by pattern    3: select by numbers
  87         4: ask each             5: quit                 6: help
  88     What now> 1
  89 ------------
  90
  91 You also could say `c` or `clean` above as long as the choice is unique.
  92
  93 The main command loop has 6 subcommands.
  94
  95 clean::
  96
  97    Start cleaning files and directories, and then quit.
  98
  99 filter by pattern::
 100
 101    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 102    "Input ignore patterns>>" prompt. You can input space-separated
 103    patterns to exclude files and directories from deletion.
 104    E.g. "*.c *.h" will excludes files end with ".c" and ".h" from
 105    deletion. When you are satisfied with the filtered result, press
 106    ENTER (empty) back to the main menu.
 107
 108 select by numbers::
 109
 110    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 111    "Select items to delete>>" prompt. When the prompt ends with double
 112    '>>' like this, you can make more than one selection, concatenated
 113    with whitespace or comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9"
 114    to choose 2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a
 115    range is omitted, all remaining items are selected.  E.g. "7-" to
 116    choose 7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
 117    Also when you are satisfied with the filtered result, press ENTER
 118    (empty) back to the main menu.
 119
 120 ask each::
 121
 122   This will start to clean, and you must confirm one by one in order
 123   to delete items. Please note that this action is not as efficient
 124   as the above two actions.
 125
 126 quit::
 127
 128   This lets you quit without do cleaning.
 129
 130 help::
 131
 132   Show brief usage of interactive git-clean.
 133
 134 SEE ALSO
 135 --------
 136 linkgit:gitignore[5]
 137
 138 GIT
 139 ---
 140 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite