Git

Cleanup Commands

Keep your repository healthy and performant. Learn to prune old branches, clean up untracked files, and optimize your repository with garbage collection and maintenance commands.

8 commands

Pro Tips

Use 'git clean -n' (dry run) before 'git clean -f' to preview what will be deleted.

Run 'git remote prune origin' to remove local references to deleted remote branches.

Use 'git branch --merged | grep -v main | xargs git branch -d' to safely delete merged branches.

Common Mistakes

'git clean -f' permanently deletes untracked files. Always use -n (dry run) first to verify.

Running 'git gc' aggressively can remove unreferenced objects you might need for recovery.

Commands

Clean dry run

$ git clean -n -d

Preview files to be removed.

Clean untracked files

$ git clean -f -d

Remove untracked files and directories.

Clean including ignored

$ git clean -f -d -x

Remove untracked and ignored files.

Discard file changes

$ git checkout -- <file>

Discard changes to a file.

Restore file (modern)

$ git restore <file>

Discard changes (Git 2.23+).

Unstage file

$ git restore --staged <file>

Unstage a file.

Reset to commit

$ git reset --hard <commit>

Reset HEAD, index, and working tree.

Garbage collect

$ git gc --aggressive

Optimize repository storage.

Git