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         Normally, when no <path> 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 any paths are 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 or -i.  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
  49 -n::
  50 --dry-run::
  51         Don't actually remove anything, just show what would be done.
  52
  53 -q::
  54 --quiet::
  55         Be quiet, only report errors, but not the files that are
  56         successfully removed.
  57
  58 -e <pattern>::
  59 --exclude=<pattern>::
  60         Use the given exclude pattern in addition to the standard ignore rules
  61         (see linkgit:gitignore[5]).
  62
  63 -x::
  64         Don't use the standard ignore rules (see linkgit:gitignore[5]), but
  65         still use the ignore rules given with `-e` options from the command
  66         line.  This allows removing all untracked
  67         files, including build products.  This can be used (possibly in
  68         conjunction with 'git restore' or 'git reset') to create a pristine
  69         working directory to test a clean build.
  70
  71 -X::
  72         Remove only files ignored by Git.  This may be useful to rebuild
  73         everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.
  74
  75 Interactive mode
  76 ----------------
  77 When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
  78 files and directories to be cleaned, and goes into its
  79 interactive command loop.
  80
  81 The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
  82 gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
  83 with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
  84 and type return, like this:
  85
  86 ------------
  87     *** Commands ***
  88         1: clean                2: filter by pattern    3: select by numbers
  89         4: ask each             5: quit                 6: help
  90     What now> 1
  91 ------------
  92
  93 You also could say `c` or `clean` above as long as the choice is unique.
  94
  95 The main command loop has 6 subcommands.
  96
  97 clean::
  98
  99    Start cleaning files and directories, and then quit.
 100
 101 filter by pattern::
 102
 103    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 104    "Input ignore patterns>>" prompt. You can input space-separated
 105    patterns to exclude files and directories from deletion.
 106    E.g. "*.c *.h" will excludes files end with ".c" and ".h" from
 107    deletion. When you are satisfied with the filtered result, press
 108    ENTER (empty) back to the main menu.
 109
 110 select by numbers::
 111
 112    This shows the files and directories to be deleted and issues an
 113    "Select items to delete>>" prompt. When the prompt ends with double
 114    '>>' like this, you can make more than one selection, concatenated
 115    with whitespace or comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9"
 116    to choose 2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a
 117    range is omitted, all remaining items are selected.  E.g. "7-" to
 118    choose 7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
 119    Also when you are satisfied with the filtered result, press ENTER
 120    (empty) back to the main menu.
 121
 122 ask each::
 123
 124   This will start to clean, and you must confirm one by one in order
 125   to delete items. Please note that this action is not as efficient
 126   as the above two actions.
 127
 128 quit::
 129
 130   This lets you quit without do cleaning.
 131
 132 help::
 133
 134   Show brief usage of interactive git-clean.
 135
 136 SEE ALSO
 137 --------
 138 linkgit:gitignore[5]
 139
 140 GIT
 141 ---
 142 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite