git rm --cached file vs git reset file

git git-reset git-rm
Vihaan Verma picture Vihaan Verma · Sep 30, 2012 · Viewed 95.1k times · Source

I'm trying to learn Git. I'm confused between 

git rm --cached file

and

git reset file

both of the commands seem to take the file from staged to un-staged area. How do the commands differ?

Answer

CB Bailey picture CB Bailey · Sep 30, 2012

git rm --cached <file> will completely remove the file's contents from the index. This means that on commit the file will be removed from the HEAD commit. (If the file was only added to the index and not yet tracked this is a "no-op".)

git reset -- <file> resets the contents of the file in the index to be the same as the head commit. This means that on commit no changes will be committed to the file. This operation is not valid if there is no tracked version of the file in the HEAD commit.

Related questions

Why are there two ways to unstage a file in Git?

Sometimes git suggests git rm --cached to unstage a file, sometimes git reset HEAD file. When should I use which? EDIT: D:\code\gt2>git init Initialized empty Git repository in D:/code/gt2/.git/ D:\code\gt2>…

Read More
"git rm --cached x" vs "git reset head --​ x"?

GitRef.org - Basic: git rm will remove entries from the staging area. This is a bit different from git reset HEAD which "unstages" files. By "unstage" I mean it reverts the staging area to what was there before we …

Read More
Git: Undo local changes; git add . + git rm?

Need help figuring out a couple common workflows with Github. I come from a VS TFS background, so forgive me. Undoing Pending Changes Let's say I have cloned of a git repository to my local file system. At this point, …

Read More