I added too many files to my commit

Suppose you have committed some work:

$ git add -A .
$ git commit -m'Fix recursion bug'

But later you look at the commit and discover you have committed sekrit, a file that should not have been committed.

$ git log --name-status
commit 790af0ed7712c5e47949c1e267793bca54080aeb
Author: Wayne Conrad <wconrad@hsmove.com>
Date:   Wed Sep 2 11:31:04 2015 -0700

    Fix recursion bug

A       somefile.rb
A       sekrit

As long as this commit has not been pushed to origin, you can remove the file from that commit. I’ll show two different ways to remote the file. Which way you pick depends upon whether you want to delete the file from disk ask well as from the commit, or keep it on disk and just remove it from the commit.

To delete the file from disk and from the commit

If you want the file deleted from disk as well as from the commit, just delete the file and then stage it:

$ rm sekrit
$ git add sekrit

Or you could use this git shortcut for “delete a file and stage the deletion”:

$ git rm sekrit

Either way, git status will show that the file is staged for deletion:

$ git status
On branch master
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)

        deleted:    sekrit

Now amend the previous comment:

$ git commit --amend

The commit will no longer have that file:

$ git log --name-status -1
commit 55da4e9b07b1337fb8161b9491f864845aad2abb
Author: Wayne Conrad <wconrad@hsmove.com>
Date:   Wed Sep 2 11:31:04 2015 -0700

    Fix recursion bug

A       somefile.rb

And it is gone from disk:

$ ls sekrit
ls: cannot access sekrit: No such file or directory

To delete the file from the commit but not from disk

To remove that file from the commit but keep it on disk, we’ll tell git to undo the previous commit, but leave all of that commit’s changes on disk. But first, remember the sha1 of the commit:

$ git log -1 --oneline
78bcad9 Fix recursion bug

Having that sha1 will keep us from having to type the commit message again. Now, undo the previous commit:

$ git reset HEAD~
$ git status
On branch master
Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)

        sekrit
        somefile.rb

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

Now stage the commit again, but this time only add the files that should be in the commit:

$ git add somefile.rb

And finally, commit. The -C switch tells git to use the same commit message, timestamp, and so on. It’s not necessary to use the -C switch – you’d just have to type the commit message again.

$ git commit -C 78bcad9
[master b36109c] Fix recursion bug
 Date: Wed Sep 2 11:31:04 2015 -0700
  1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
   create mode 100644 somefile.rb

The commit no longer has file sekrit in it:

$ git log --name-status  -1
commit b36109cf76020f365050a33d374dc15b386050d0
Author: Wayne Conrad <wconrad@hsmove.com>
Date:   Wed Sep 2 11:31:04 2015 -0700

    Fix recursion bug

A       somefile.rb

But the file is on disk:

$ git status
On branch master
Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)

        sekrit

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

How to keep git from committing that file ever again

If the file should never be committed to git, add it to the .gitignore file:

$ echo 'sekrit' >>.gitignore
$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -m'Ignore sekrit'
[master 15336c9] Ignore sekrit
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

Git will no longer consider the file untracked:

$ git status
On branch master
nothing to commit, working directory clean

Wayne Conrad's Blog

When git goes wrong--Removing files from a commit

I added too many files to my commit

To delete the file from disk and from the commit

To delete the file from the commit but not from disk

How to keep git from committing that file ever again