Typically you would first remove all tracked files from the working
tree using this command:
-Submodules
-~~~~~~~~~~
-Only submodules using a gitfile (which means they were cloned
-with a git version 1.7.8 or newer) will be removed from the work
-tree, as their repository lives inside the .git directory of the
-superproject. If a submodule (or one of those nested inside it)
-still uses a .git directory, `git rm` will fail - no matter if forced
-or not - to protect the submodule's history.
-
-A submodule is considered up-to-date when the HEAD is the same as
-recorded in the index, no tracked files are modified and no untracked
-files that aren't ignored are present in the submodules work tree.
-Ignored files are deemed expendable and won't stop a submodule's work
-tree from being removed.
-
----------------
git ls-files -z | xargs -0 rm -f
----------------
git diff --name-only --diff-filter=D -z | xargs -0 git rm --cached
----------------
+Submodules
+~~~~~~~~~~
+Only submodules using a gitfile (which means they were cloned
+with a git version 1.7.8 or newer) will be removed from the work
+tree, as their repository lives inside the .git directory of the
+superproject. If a submodule (or one of those nested inside it)
+still uses a .git directory, `git rm` will fail - no matter if forced
+or not - to protect the submodule's history.
+
+A submodule is considered up-to-date when the HEAD is the same as
+recorded in the index, no tracked files are modified and no untracked
+files that aren't ignored are present in the submodules work tree.
+Ignored files are deemed expendable and won't stop a submodule's work
+tree from being removed.
+
EXAMPLES
--------
`git rm Documentation/\*.txt`::