Git: Remove committed file after push

Solution 1:

update: added safer method

preferred method:

  1. check out the previous (unchanged) state of your file; notice the double dash

    git checkout HEAD^ -- /path/to/file
    
  2. commit it:

    git commit -am "revert changes on this file, not finished with it yet"
    
  3. push it, no force needed:

    git push
    
  4. get back to your unfinished work, again do (3 times arrow up):

    git checkout HEAD^ -- /path/to/file
    

effectively 'uncommitting':

To modify the last commit of the repository HEAD, obfuscating your accidentally pushed work, while potentially running into a conflict with your colleague who may have pulled it already, and who will grow grey hair and lose lots of time trying to reconcile his local branch head with the central one:

To remove file change from last commit:

  1. to revert the file to the state before the last commit, do:

    git checkout HEAD^ /path/to/file
    
  2. to update the last commit with the reverted file, do:

    git commit --amend
    
  3. to push the updated commit to the repo, do:

    git push -f
    

Really, consider using the preferred method mentioned before.

Solution 2:

If you want to remove the file from the remote repo, first remove it from your project with --cache option and then push it:

git rm --cache /path/to/file
git commit -am "Remove file"
git push

(This works even if the file was added to the remote repo some commits ago) Remember to add to .gitignore the file extensions that you don't want to push.

Solution 3:

You can revert only one file to a specified revision.

First you can check on which commits the file was changed.

git log path/to/file.txt

Then you can checkout the file with the revision number.

git checkout 3cdc61015724f9965575ba954c8cd4232c8b42e4 /path/to/file.txt

After that you can commit and push it again.

Solution 4:

Reset the file in a correct state, commit, and push again.

If you're sure nobody else has fetched your changes yet, you can use --amend when committing, to modify your previous commit (i.e. rewrite history), and then push. I think you'll have to use the -f option when pushing, to force the push, though.

Solution 5:

You can use the following workflow:

git reset --soft HEAD~1
git reset HEAD /path/to/file