DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Remove files from the working tree and from the index. The
-files have to be identical to the tip of the branch, and no
-updates to its contents must have been placed in the staging
-area (aka index). When --cached is given, the staged content has to
-match either the tip of the branch *or* the file on disk.
+Remove files from the index, or from the working tree and the index.
+`git rm` will not remove a file from just your working directory.
+(There is no option to remove a file only from the work tree
+and yet keep it in the index; use `/bin/rm` if you want to do that.)
+The files being removed have to be identical to the tip of the branch,
+and no updates to their contents can be staged in the index,
+though that default behavior can be overridden with the `-f` option.
+When '--cached' is given, the staged content has to
+match either the tip of the branch or the file on disk,
+allowing the file to be removed from just the index.
OPTIONS
-------
<file>...::
Files to remove. Fileglobs (e.g. `*.c`) can be given to
- remove all matching files. Also a leading directory name
- (e.g. `dir` to add `dir/file1` and `dir/file2`) can be
- given to remove all files in the directory, recursively,
- but this requires `-r` option to be given for safety.
+ remove all matching files. If you want git to expand
+ file glob characters, you may need to shell-escape them.
+ A leading directory name
+ (e.g. `dir` to remove `dir/file1` and `dir/file2`) can be
+ given to remove all files in the directory, and recursively
+ all sub-directories,
+ but this requires the `-r` option to be explicitly given.
-f::
Override the up-to-date check.
-n, \--dry-run::
- Don't actually remove the file(s), just show if they exist in
- the index.
+ Don't actually remove any file(s). Instead, just show
+ if they exist in the index and would otherwise be removed
+ by the command.
-r::
Allow recursive removal when a leading directory name is
for command-line options).
\--cached::
- This option can be used to tell the command to remove
- the paths only from the index, leaving working tree
- files.
+ Use this option to unstage and remove paths only from the index.
+ Working tree files, whether modified or not, will be
+ left alone.
\--ignore-unmatch::
Exit with a zero status even if no files matched.
DISCUSSION
----------
-The list of <file> given to the command can be exact pathnames,
-file glob patterns, or leading directory name. The command
-removes only the paths that is known to git. Giving the name of
+The <file> list given to the command can be exact pathnames,
+file glob patterns, or leading directory names. The command
+removes only the paths that are known to git. Giving the name of
a file that you have not told git about does not remove that file.
+File globbing matches across directory boundaries. Thus, given
+two directories `d` and `d2`, there is a difference between
+using `git rm \'d\*\'` and `git rm \'d/\*\'`, as the former will
+also remove all of directory `d2`.
EXAMPLES
--------
`Documentation` directory and any of its subdirectories.
+
Note that the asterisk `\*` is quoted from the shell in this
-example; this lets the command include the files from
-subdirectories of `Documentation/` directory.
+example; this lets git, and not the shell, expand the pathnames
+of files and subdirectories under the `Documentation/` directory.
git-rm -f git-*.sh::
- Remove all git-*.sh scripts that are in the index.
Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk
(i.e. you are listing the files explicitly), it
does not remove `subdir/git-foo.sh`.