Git: Exclude a file with git clean

Question

i'm working on a big python project, and i'm really sick if .pyc and *~ files. I'd like to remove them. I've seen that the `-X` flag of git clean would remove untracked files. As you can imagine, i'm not tracking `.pyc` nor `*~` files. And that would make the trick. The problem is that i've a `local_settings.py` file that I'd like to keep after the git clean. So, this is what I've got. .gitignore: ``` *.pyc *~ local_settings.py ``` When I execute this command: ``` git clean -X -n -e local_settings.py ``` I get this list of results: Would remove local_settings.py Would remove requirements.txt~ Would remove (other bunch of) ~ files Would remove (other bunch of) pyc files I don't want to remove the local_settings.py file. I've tryed lots of ways to do it, but i can't figure out how to acomplish it. ``` git clean -X -n -e local_settings.py git clean -X -n -e "local_settings.py" git clean -X -n --exclude=local_settings.py git clean -X -n --exclude="local_settings.py" ``` And nothing seems…

Accepted Answer

The difference is the capital `X` you're using. Use a small `x` instead of the capital one. Like in: `git clean -x`.

```
git clean -x -n -e local_settings.py # Shows what would remove (-n flag)
git clean -x -f -e local_settings.py # Removes it (note the -f flag)
```

From the git documentation:

```
   -x
       Don't use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per
       directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore
       rules given with -e options. This allows removing all untracked
       files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in
       conjunction with git reset) to create a pristine working directory
       to test a clean build.

-X
       Remove only files ignored by git. This may be useful to rebuild
       everything from scratch, but keep manually created files.
```

Git: Exclude a file with git clean

Solution

Problem