Developers often encounter a situation where they do not want to commit all created and modified project files and temporarily ignore them from the staging area. In addition, they want to keep these changes without updating the repository. In this situation, you need to temporarily untrace these files. More specifically, the commands “$ git rm -cached” and “$ git update-index” can be useful for this corresponding purpose.
This post discusses
: Method 1: How to untrack Git files temporarily using “git
- rm -cached” command? Method 2: How to crawl git files temporarily using “git update-index” command?
Now, move towards the detail of the methods mentioned above!
Method 1: How to untrace git files temporarily using “git rm -cached” command? The “$
git rm –
cached” command can temporarily delete the specified file from the staging area and untrace it. To implement this operation for better understanding, follow the steps below.
Step 1: Move to local repository
First, navigate to the particular Git repository by running the command “cd
“: <img src="https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-1.png"
alt=”” />
Step 2: Content List
Run the following command to view the list of the current contents of the
repository:
<img
src=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-2.png” alt=”” /> Step
3: Create
a new
text file To create a new text file in the repository, use the “touch” command
:
Step 4: Provisionalize the file
Next, run the command provided below to add the text file to the staging area:
<img src
=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-4.png” alt=”” />
Step 5: Temporarily
delete the file from the
staging area Now, delete the file from the staging area by running the “git rm” command along with the “-cached” option ” and the particular file name
:
<img
src=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-5.png” alt=”” />
Step 6: Check
the status of the repository Run the “
git status.” command to check the status of the repository
:
As you can see, the specified file has been temporarily removed from the staging index:
Let’s move on to the next method to
untrack Git files temporarily.
Method 2: How to uncrawl Git files temporarily using “git update-index” command?
Sometimes, developers don’t want to keep track of all the files created in the staging area and want to ignore them temporarily. To do this, follow the steps below.
Step
1: Ignore particular
file
To start ignoring the desired text file with changes, run the provided command along with the path of the desired
file: Here, the “-
assume-unchanged” option will assume that the file is not changed and will ignore modifications
:
Step 2: Move
to Git repository Now,
navigate to the particular local Git repository using the following
command:
<img src
=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-8.png” alt=”” />
Step 3: Check the status of
ignored files Now,
to make sure that the specified file is ignored correctly, run the command “git ls-files” with the option “ -v“: Here
, the “h” indicates that the file is
not temporarily crawled from the repository and “H” shows that the file is crawled
:
<img src
=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-9.png” alt=”” /> Step 4: Return to the
Git root directory Next, return to the Git root directory using the “cd..”
:
<img
src=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-10.png” alt=”” /> Step 5: Track a
particular ignore
file
After performing the desired operations in the Git repository, trace the ignored file and run the following command along with the “-no-assume-unchanged” option
:
<img
src=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-11.png” alt=”” /> Step
6: Move to
the Git repository Next,
navigate to the local Git repository using the command provided
:
<img src
=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Untrack-Files-From-Git-Temporarily-12.png” alt=”” />
Step 7: Check
the current status of the file
Finally, check the status of the previously ignored file: As you can see, the status of
the file highlighted
below is “H“, which indicates that the file has been successfully crawled:
That’s it! We have provided different ways to untrack files from the Git repository temporarily.
Conclusion
Two different commands are used to untrace files from the Git repository, which are the command “$ git rm -cached <file-name>” or “$ git update-index -assume-unchanged <path/to/file>“. To trace the ignored file, the command “$ git update-index -no-assume-unchanged <path/to/file>” can be used. This post illustrated the different commands for untracking files from the Git repository temporarily.
