How to Remove a Large Staged File from Git

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Author

Nyamisi Peter

Published

March 20, 2024

Introduction

When working with Git, it is common to accidentally stage large files that should not be included in the repository. These large files can bloat the repository and make it difficult to work with or sometimes the push fails. When the push fails, it will display an error message that shows the name of that large file in your repository. When this happens, there are steps you can take to remove these large staged files from Git.

Steps in removing a file from Git

  1. Identify the Large Staged File: Before removing the large staged file, you need to identify which file is causing the issue, or read the error message and identify the file from your repository.

  2. Open the Git bash and move to your working directory using cd command. Changing the working directory in Git

  3. Unstage the File: Once you have identified the large staged file and moved to your working directory, you can unstage it using the git reset <file> command. In this case, I will remove mtwara_sst_june.csv file from the repository. Unstaging a file from Git This will remove the file from the staging area, but it will still be present in your working directory in the .git folder that was generated during commit.

  4. Remove the File from Git History: To completely remove the large staged file from Git, you will need to delete the .git folder from your working directory. Deleting Git history folder from the working directory

  5. Re-push Changes to your Repository: After removing the large staged file from Git, you will need to make changes to your repository. Since it is not your first commit, then you will only run three steps to make those changes to your GitHub repository; add, commit and push.

  • Add all your files in the working directory using git add .

  • Commit changes to your repository using git commit -m “Add commit message”

  • Push your work using git push

  • If it still give the same error message that there is large file, the only option you have is to delete that repository from GitHub and you may re-create a new repository using the same name but by changing the working directory.

  • Copy all your files except the .git folder from the older folder to the new folder.

  • Initiate Git in your local development environment by opening the GitBash and follow the deployment steps to GitHub.

After deployment, navigate to your repository on GitHub and verify that the changes have been deployed successfully.

If the changes made to your GitHub repository are successful, you may wish to publish your repository and make it accessible to the public as a web page