Delete a Git File or Folder While Keeping the Local Ones

Delete a file

To remove a file from Git version control while keeping the local file.

1. Add the file to .gitignore.
2. Execute in command line:

​ ​ git rm file_path --cached ​

3. Commit: Delete the file from the git version:

​ ​ git commit -m "delete the file" ​

Delete a folder

To remove a folder from Git version control while retaining the local folder, add the -r argument:

​ git rm -r folder_path --cached

To remove all files in .gitignore from version control, you need to remove all files first, and then do the following to add all files.

​ git rm -r . --cached

​ git add .

This way, files in gitignore will be ignored.