The most terrifying Git command

git clean -fdx

It removes all files not tracked or staged by git. Useful for cleanup and reverting your project to “factory settings”.

But you might want to keep some directories around, like editor specific caches. You can do this:

1. First, add the directory you want to keep in .gitignore; it has to be the entire directory, with none of it’s contents tracked:

# Good

/.idea/
/env/
/secrets/

# Bad (Don't do this!)

/secrets/*
!/secrets/.keep

2. Now you need to do a git init in each of those directories. Add a shiled goal to your Makefile:

.PHONY: shield
shield:
	@git init .idea
	@git init env
	@git init secrets

3. Make sure to execute make shield after cloning the repository!

4. Now you can run git clean -fdx all you want! Add it to your Makefile too:

.PHONY: clean
clean:
	@git clean -fdx

Pro Tip Link to heading

If your repository and development tools are not git clean -fdx proof, you failed at life!