Tutorial: GIT and GitHubDeleting & Renaming files - 2020

bogotobogo.com site search:

Git graph

The following is the graph of this chapter:

Deleting files

Deleting files from our repo is simple, delete them, and then commit.

We have 4 files in repository: Book1, Book2, Book3, and OldBook.

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ ls
Book1.rtf	Book2.rtf	Book3.rtf	OldBook.rtf

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git status
On branch master
nothing to commit, working directory clean
k@laptop:~/GitDemo$

Now, we want to remove "OldBook" which is already in our repository.

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git rm OldBook.rtf

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git status
On branch master
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add/rm ..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git checkout -- ..." to discard changes in working directory)

	deleted:    OldBook.rtf

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

But our repository still has the 'OldBook'. So, we need to do commit the deleted file:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git commit -am "deleted OldBook"
[master 7a4caa8] deleted OldBook
 1 file changed, 9 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 OldBook.rtf

Now, it's gone and the 'OldBook' became a history. So, deleting a file from a repo is straight forward: delete and commit.

Renaming files

We have two ways of renaming a file in our repository.

Renaming a file in a working folder.

Now we want to rename the 'Book3' to 'Appendix'.

First, we directly rename the file in our working directory:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ mv Book3.rtf Appendix.rtf
k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ ls
Appendix.rtf	Book1.rtf	Book2.rtf

If we check the git status:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git status
On branch master
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add/rm ..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git checkout -- ..." to discard changes in working directory)

	deleted:    Book3.rtf

Untracked files:
  (use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed)

	Appendix.rtf

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

The git thinks the 'Book3' is removed and 'Appendix' is added. Now we should remove 'Book3' and add 'Appendix' on repo:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git rm Book3.rtf
rm 'Book3.rtf'
k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git add Appendix.rtf

Then, check the status again:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git status
On branch master
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git reset HEAD ..." to unstage)

	renamed:    Book3.rtf -> Appendix.rtf

Notice that Git is smart enough to realize what we did was just renaming the file!

All we have to do now is to commit:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git commit -m "renamed Book3 as Appendix"
[master 8d7d7f1] renamed Book3 as Appendix
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 rename Book3.rtf => Appendix.rtf (100%)

Using "git mv" command

This time we want to rename 'Book2' to "Introduction".

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git mv Book2.rtf Introduction.rtf

Now git immediately recognizes we renamed it:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git status
On branch master
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git reset HEAD ..." to unstage)

	renamed:    Book2.rtf -> Introduction.rtf

All we have to do now is doing commit:

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git commit -m "Book2->Introduction"
[master e1ec728] Book2->Introduction
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 rename Book2.rtf => Introduction.rtf (100%)

k@laptop:~/GitDemo$ git status
On branch master
nothing to commit, working directory clean