Unstage a file in Git

When you stage a file in Git, you instruct Git to track changes to the file in preparation for a commit. To instruct Git to disregard changes to a file, and not include it in your next commit, unstage the file.

  • To remove files from stage use reset HEAD, where HEAD is the last commit of the current branch. This unstages the file but maintains the modifications.

    git reset HEAD <file>
    
  • To revert the file back to the state it was in before the changes:

    git checkout -- <file>
    
  • To remove a file from disk and repository, use git rm. To remove a directory, use the -r flag:

    git rm '*.txt'
    git rm -r <dirname>
    
  • To keep a file on disk but remove it from the repository (such as a file you want to add to .gitignore), use the rm command with the --cache flag:

    git rm <filename> --cache