How to remove a file from a git repository, without deleting it in cloned repositories

Question

I can remove a file from a git repository with

git rm --cached <file>

But when I pull these changes in a cloned directory, this file will be deleted there.

Is it possible avoid this without saving this file in all clones and restore it after pulling?

Answer 1

I think you are looking for assume-unchanged flag.

Basically, try running the following command

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>

This will stop tracking any local changes to the file .

To undo the effect of above command, use git update-index --no-assume-unchanged

Answer 2

The idea of a clone of a repository is that it is meant to be the same, so pulling will always make the two repos the same. If you want to have two different sets of files you could create a new branch with the deleted file gone using

git checkout -b <branch_name>

and then commit the deleted file there.

If you really don't want to do this you could always pull the changes and then easily get the file back by using

git checkout HEAD^ -- <file>

Which checks out the file from the commit before last.