Add Files With Local Changes Cannot Be Removed as a Git TIL

git/files-with-local-changes-cannot-be-removed.md

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+# Files With Local Changes Cannot Be Removed
+
+This is a nice quality-of-life feature in `git` that should help you avoid
+accidentally discarding changes that won't be retrievable.
+
+```bash
+❯ git rm .tool-versions
+error: the following file has local modifications:
+    .tool-versions
+(use --cached to keep the file, or -f to force removal)
+```
+
+My `.tool-versions` file has some local changes. I don't realize that and I go
+to issue a `git rm` command on that file. Instead of quietly wiping out my
+changes, `git` lets me know I'm doing something destructive (these local
+changes won't be in the diff or the reflog).
+
+I can force the removal if I know what I'm doing with the `-f` flag. Or I can
+take the two step approach of calling `git restore` on that file and then `git
+rm`.
+
+The `--cached` flag is also interesting because it doesn't actually delete the
+file from my file system, but it does stage the file deletion with `git`. That
+means the file now shows up as one of my untracked files.
+
+See `man git-rm` for more details.