Question

I erroneously added some local project files to a git repository and committed/pushed them.

I’d like to delete these files from the remote repository, keep them locally, and ignore them for future commits/pushes.

What’s the best way to go about this?

Answer 1

The cleanest solution is the following:

• git rm --cached the extra files locally (note the --cached option to keep those files in your working directory),
• add them to your .gitignore file and git commit -A -m "..." after that,
• push your branch (no history rewritten, but previous history will keep references to those files).

If you think not too many people have pulled from your remote repo (ideally, none), you could:

• fix your commit history locally
  (git rebase --interactive first-commit-with-files^: the ‘^’ referencing the parent commit of the first one where you did introduce the bad files.
  git rm --cached the files, then replay the other commmits unless some of them have also made modifications to the same files.
  Other solutions here — git filter-branch or git rebase),
• push –force your branch,
  (but then, be prepared to point out people to the RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE section of the git rebase man page).
  (see definition of upstream here)