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

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

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+# 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.