Add Find And Remove Files That Match A Name as a Git TIL

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://crafty-builder-6996.ck.page/e169c61186).
 
-_1255 TILs and counting..._
+_1256 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -262,6 +262,7 @@ _1255 TILs and counting..._
 - [Dry Runs in Git](git/dry-runs-in-git.md)
 - [Exclude A File From A Diff Output](git/exclude-a-file-from-a-diff-output.md)
 - [Excluding Files Locally](git/excluding-files-locally.md)
+- [Find And Remove Files That Match A Name](git/find-and-remove-files-that-match-a-name.md)
 - [Find The Date That A File Was Added To The Repo](git/find-the-date-that-a-file-was-added-to-the-repo.md)
 - [Find The Initial Commit](git/find-the-initial-commit.md)
 - [Get The Name Of The Current Branch](git/get-the-name-of-the-current-branch.md)

git/find-and-remove-files-that-match-a-name.md

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# Find And Remove Files That Match A Name
+
+Let's say I have a bunch of `robots.txt` file scattered throughout my project.
+I want to find all instances of that file checked into git. I then want to
+remove that file from git.
+
+I can find all the instances of that file checked into git using the
+[`git-ls-files`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-ls-files) command.
+
+```bash
+$ git ls-files '**/robots.txt'
+project-a/public/robots.txt
+project-b/public/robots.txt
+apps/project-c/public/robots.txt
+```
+
+That results in a list of paths of those files regardless of how far down they
+are nested (because of the `**` glob pattern).
+
+And because `git-ls-files` is a _git plumbing_ command, it pipes cleanly into
+other unix commands.
+
+I can combine that first command with [`git
+rm`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rm) using the
+[`xargs`](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/xargs.1.html) command.
+
+```bash
+$ git ls-files '**/robots.txt' | xargs git rm
+rm 'project-a/public/robots.txt'
+rm 'project-b/public/robots.txt'
+rm 'apps/project-c/public/robots.txt'
+```
+
+That takes each path from the first part of the command and passes it to `git
+rm` which stages it as a removed file.
+
+I can finalize my work by creating a commit from these staged changes.