Remove untracked files and directories from the working tree with git clean

domain: git-scm.com · 5 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Documented steps

  1. Always preview first with a dry run: `git clean -n` (also `-n -d` to include untracked directories) to see exactly what would be removed.
  2. Remove untracked files in the current dir: `git clean -f`.
  3. Include untracked directories: `git clean -fd`.
  4. Remove only ignored files (e.g. build artifacts) while keeping hand-created files: `git clean -fX`.
  5. Remove everything untracked INCLUDING ignored files: `git clean -fdx`. Combine with `git reset --hard` for a pristine tree.

Known gotchas

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