git clean not removing sub-directories (not recursive)

Question

I am facing problems with git clean. Consider the following scenario:

git status -su
?? file_1
?? xyz/file_2

git clean -f
Not removing xyz/file_2
Removing file_1

I don't want to remove the xyz folder, but I want to remove the file_2 inside it.

Why is git clean is not working recursively?

Answer 1

If you have it in ignore, use git clean -xf. You can do git clean -xdf but that will also remove untracked directories. Use -n for a dry-run.

http://gitready.com/beginner/2009/01/16/cleaning-up-untracked-files.html