Why use 'git rm' to remove a file instead of 'rm'?

Question

On SVN, removing something from the filesystem directly (rather than using svn) created a load of headaches.

I haven't found this to be an issue when using git, but I notice that git has it's own rm implementation (git rm).

What is the difference between rm and git rm?

Answer 1

If you just use rm, you will need to follow it up with git add <fileRemoved>. git rm does this in one step.

You can also use git rm --cached which will remove the file from the index (staging it for deletion on the next commit), but keep your copy in the local file system.