Applying .gitignore to committed files

to leave the file in the repo but ignore future changes to it:

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>

and to undo this:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged <file>

to find out which files have been set this way:

git ls-files -v|grep '^h'

credit for the original answer to http://blog.pagebakers.nl/2009/01/29/git-ignoring-changes-in-tracked-files/

After editing .gitignore to match the ignored files, you can do git ls-files -ci --exclude-standard to see the files that are included in the exclude lists; you can then do

• Linux/MacOS: git ls-files -ci --exclude-standard -z | xargs -0 git rm --cached
• Windows (PowerShell): git ls-files -ci --exclude-standard | % { git rm --cached "$_" }
• Windows (cmd.exe): for /F "tokens=*" %a in ('git ls-files -ci --exclude-standard') do @git rm --cached "%a"

to remove them from the repository (without deleting them from disk).

Edit: You can also add this as an alias in your .gitconfig file so you can run it anytime you like. Just add the following line under the [alias] section (modify as needed for Windows or Mac):

apply-gitignore = !git ls-files -ci --exclude-standard -z | xargs -0 git rm --cached

(The -r flag in xargs prevents git rm from running on an empty result and printing out its usage message, but may only be supported by GNU findutils. Other versions of xargs may or may not have a similar option.)

Now you can just type git apply-gitignore in your repo, and it'll do the work for you!

1. Edit .gitignore to match the file you want to ignore
2. git rm --cached /path/to/file

See also:

• How do I git rm a file without deleting it from disk?
• Remove a file from a Git repository without deleting it from the local filesystem
• Ignoring a directory from a Git repo after it's been added