How do I clear my local working directory in Git?
git
Solution
To reset a specific file to the last-committed state (to discard uncommitted changes in a specific file):
git checkout thefiletoreset.txt
This is mentioned in the `git status` output:
(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
To reset the entire repository to the last committed state:
git reset --hard
To remove untracked files, I usually just delete all files in the working copy (but not the `.git/` folder!), then do `git reset --hard` which leaves it with only committed files.
A better way is to use `git clean` (warning: using the `-x` flag as below will cause Git to delete ignored files):
git clean -d -x -f
will remove untracked files, including directories (`-d`) and files ignored by git (`-x`). Replace the `-f` argument with `-n` to perform a dry-run or `-i` for interactive mode, and it will tell you what will be removed.
Relevant links:
- git-reset man page
- git-clean man page
- git ready "cleaning up untracked files" (as Marko posted)
- Stack Overflow question "How to remove local (untracked) files from the current Git working tree")
Problem
How can I clear my working directory in Git?