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

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.

❯ 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.