Git - What is the difference between rm and git rm?

This article covers how to use the command ‘git rm’.

If you want to remove files on a Unix (or Unix-like) operating system, you can open the shell and use the rm command.

This would delete the file from the filesystem.

However, if the file is staged in git, then it would not track the deletion in the staging area.

To do this, you simply need to stage your deletion:

rm <file-name>
git add <file-name>Copy

It’s confusing to use add when you’re trying to delete a file. In this instance, you are adding the file deletion changes into the staging area, so that the file is deleted when you next commit.

Using git rm

A simpler method would be to use the command git rm

git rm <file-name>Copy

This would remove the file from your working directory, and stage it automatically.

—f

What if you have staged changes? You can simply force the removal with the -f parameter:

git rm -f <file-name>Copy

This will remove all the working changes you have made on that file.

—cached

Alternatively, you could keep all of your working changes locally, but still move the deleted file into your staging area. This is done using the —cached parameter:

git rm --cached <file-name>Copy

After running this command and committing, the file will be deleted on the remote repository, but the full file will still be in your working directory.

In fact, the file in your working directory will now be considered a new file, and therefore untracked.

—dry-run

If you want to see what commands git would run, without deleting any files, you can add the —dry-run parameter:

git rm --dry-run <file-name>Copy

Removing a Directory

To remove an entire directory and all of its contents, use the -r parameter for recursive removal:

git rm -r <directory-name>Copy

This will remove the directory from your working directory and stage the deletion, just like git rm does for a single file.

Undo git rm

If you haven’t committed yet, you can undo a git rm by restoring the file from HEAD:

git checkout HEAD -- <file-name>Copy

If you used git rm —cached, the file is still in your working directory, so no undo is needed. The file simply becomes untracked.

git rm vs git restore

In modern Git (2.23+), you can use git restore to unstage a deletion instead of git checkout:

git restore --staged <file-name>Copy

This achieves the same result but with a clearer intent. The git restore command was introduced to separate the responsibilities of git checkout, making it easier to understand what each command does.