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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-05T05:37:52+00:00

Often I move files in a git repository using my IDE or via the

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Often I move files in a git repository using my IDE or via the command line (not via git mv).

As a result I and end up with several unstaged files to be deleted on my next commit as below:

# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   modified:   test.html
#
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   deleted:    css/bootstrap.css
#   deleted:    css/bootstrap.min.css
#   deleted:    img/glyphicons-halflings-white.png
#   deleted:    img/glyphicons-halflings.png
#   deleted:    js/bootstrap.js
#   deleted:    js/bootstrap.min.js

I typically will select all the deleted files and edit them in a text editor to produce like:

git rm  css/bootstrap.css
git rm  css/bootstrap.min.css
git rm  img/glyphicons-halflings-white.png
git rm  img/glyphicons-halflings.png
git rm  js/bootstrap.js
git rm  js/bootstrap.min.js

Which I then throw back into the console.

Is there a way to do this without having to copy/paste?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If I understand your question correctly, you want to commit your deletes…that is, you want to perform the equivalent of git rm for all of the files that show up as deleted. git clean won’t do this.

    You can run git add -u:

    Only match against already tracked files in the index
    rather than the working tree. That means that it will never stage new
    files, but that it will stage modified new contents of tracked files
    and that it will remove files from the index if the corresponding
    files in the working tree have been removed.

    This will pick up all changes to tracked files, including deletes. So if you start with this:

    # Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   deleted:    file2
#   deleted:    file3
#   deleted:    file4
#   deleted:    file5

    Running git add -u will get you to this:

    # Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   deleted:    file2
#   deleted:    file3
#   deleted:    file4
#   deleted:    file5

    And a commit at this point will do the right thing.

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