I committed a file that should be ignored

Severity Minor

What just happened

.gitignore only applies to files Git doesn't track yet. Once committed, a file stays tracked until you remove it from the index.

Potential risks

If it contains secrets, it's not just clean-up: see the .env emergency.

Before you run anything

--cached keeps the files on your disk: only Git forgets them.

Recovery steps

1
Ignore it
Add the pattern to .gitignore.
Safe
```
$ echo "node_modules/" >> .gitignore
```

Stop tracking it, keep it on disk

-r for a folder.

Safe

$ git rm -r --cached node_modules
$ git commit -m "chore: stop tracking node_modules"

3
Check what is still ignored or not
Shows which .gitignore rule matches a file.
Safe
```
$ git check-ignore -v node_modules/react/index.js
```

These procedures are provided for information only. Read each command and adapt it to your situation before running it. Disclaimer

Other disasters

🪓 I deleted my branch 🚨 I pushed directly to main 💥 I ran git reset --hard 🧨 I overwrote a colleague's commits 🔑 I pushed my .env file to GitHub 🔀 I made a bad merge 👻 I lost uncommitted changes 🎯 I committed on the wrong branch 🎈 I'm in “detached HEAD” state ⚔️ I'm stuck in a merge conflict 🚫 My push is rejected (non-fast-forward)🌀 My rebase went wrong 🐘 GitHub rejects a file over 100 MB 🥸 I committed with the wrong name or email 🗑️ I deleted a file and committed it ⏪ I want to undo my last commit ✏️ I amended a commit that was already pushed 🧹 Too many messy commits to clean up 📮 I pushed to the wrong branch 🧭 I rebased onto the wrong branch 🔁 I need back the changes I reverted 📦 git stash pop gave me a conflict 🔠 Git doesn't see my file rename (upper/lower case)🧨 I ran git clean -fd by mistake 🩻 My repository is corrupted 🙃 I forgot to pull before pushing 👯 Duplicated lines of code after a merge ➖ I added a file I didn't want to (git add)✏️ I made a typo in a commit message ✂️ My commit does too many things 🧺 I lost a stash (drop, clear or pop gone wrong)🫥 I pulled and my code disappeared 🍒 I cherry-picked the wrong commit ☁️ I deleted a branch on GitHub / GitLab 👥 I pushed with the wrong GitHub account 🚚 The repository was renamed or moved 🏷️ I tagged the wrong commit 🌊 Git says every file is modified, but I changed nothing 📦 I committed node_modules (or a build folder)📂 I ran git init in the wrong folder 🧨 My pull request has conflicts ⏳ My pull request is behind main 📝 I have to apply review changes to my PR 🧳 My PR shows commits that aren't mine 🎯 I opened my PR against the wrong branch 🚨 A merged PR broke main 🚪 I closed my PR (or deleted its branch) by mistake 🔴 The checks of my PR are failing 🐘 My PR is too big to review 🍴 My fork is behind the original repository