git_clean [Doku Wiki]

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===== Overview =====

General usage for "cleaning" your working directory:


<code>
$ git clean [-d] [-f] [-i] [-n] [-q] [-e <pattern>] [-x | -X] [--] <path>...
</code>

The single config setting for this command:

  * ''clean.requireForce''

Prerequisites: You should understand ''gitignore'' files.

===== DESCRIPTION =====

<code>
Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are not
under version control, starting from the current directory.

Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the -x
option is specified, ignored files are also removed. This can, for
example, be useful to remove all build products.

If any optional <path>... arguments are given, only those paths are
affected.
</code>

Note how both ignored files and new, //staged// files are not cleaned by default. Currently, there is some dissension regarding what is meant by files "known to Git."

===== Basic options =====

General execution options:

<code>
-i, --interactive
    Show what would be done and clean files interactively.

-n, --dry-run
    Don’t actually remove anything, just show what would be done.

-q, --quiet
    Be quiet, only report errors, but not the files that are
    successfully removed.
</code>

Forcing the issue:

<code>
-f, --force
    If the Git configuration variable clean.requireForce is not set
    to false, git clean will refuse to delete files or directories
    unless given -f, -n or -i. Git will refuse to delete
    directories with .git sub directory or file unless a second -f
    is given.
</code>

Removing directories as well:

<code>
-d
    Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files. If
    an untracked directory is managed by a different Git
    repository, it is not removed by default. Use -f option twice
    if you really want to remove such a directory.
</code>

===== Overriding standard ignore rules =====

The explanation below oddly does not mention the use of the configuration setting ''core.excludesFile''.

<code>
-e <pattern>, --exclude=<pattern>
    In addition to those found in .gitignore (per directory) and
    $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, also consider these patterns to be in
    the set of the ignore rules in effect.

-x
    Don’t use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore
    (per directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use
    the ignore rules given with -e options. This allows removing
    all untracked files, including build products. This can be
    used (possibly in conjunction with git reset) to create a
    pristine working directory to test a clean build.

-X
    Remove only files ignored by Git. This may be useful to
    rebuild everything from scratch, but keep manually created
    files.
</code>

===== Getting a "pristine" working tree =====

Create a shell alias:

<code>
alias gpristine='git reset --hard && git clean -dfx'
</code>