Force Delete Untracked And Excluded Files

Use 'git clean -fx' to forcefully remove untracked and excluded files from your Git repository.

Terminal

git clean -f -x

git clean -f -x

#!/bin/bash

# Force Delete Untracked And Excluded Files
git clean {{[-f|--force]}} -x

import subprocess

# Force Delete Untracked And Excluded Files
# Make sure to replace <placeholders> with actual values
def run_command():
    cmd = [
        "git",
        "clean",
        "-f",
        "-x"
    ]
    
    try:
        print(f"Executing: {' '.join(cmd)}")
        subprocess.run(cmd, check=True)
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}")
    except FileNotFoundError:
        print("Error: git not found. Please install it first.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_command()

When To Use

Cleaning up untracked files before a production release.

Terminal Output

Expected runtime feedback

Simulated preview

Output

Removing untracked files:
  deleted:    build/output.log
  deleted:    temp/cache

Done!

Command Breakdown

What each part is doing

git: Base Command; The executable that performs this operation. Here it runs Git before the shell applies any redirect operators.
-f: f| force; The value supplied for f| force.
-f: Command Option; Tool-specific option used by this command invocation.
-x: Command Option; Tool-specific option used by this command invocation.

How To Run

Execution path

Step 1
Open your terminal and navigate to your Git repository.
Step 2
Run the command: git clean -fx to remove untracked and excluded files.
Step 3
Verify the changes by checking the status with git status.

Alternative Approaches

Comparable commands in other tools

Alternative version control tools for the same job.

Hg / Remove Staged Files Excluding Pattern hg remove -X <pattern> Nix / Rollback Latest Action Default Profile nix profile rollback Hg / Add New Files To Commit hg add Svn / Commit Changes To Repository svn ci -m <commit_log_message> [<PATH>] Gh / Create Gist From Files gh gist {new|create} {path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}

Force Delete Untracked And Excluded Files

Expected runtime feedback

What each part is doing

Execution path

Stay inside the same tool family

Comparable commands in other tools