How to Discard Untracked Git Files and Safely Revert Pushed Commits

Untracked Files

"Untracked files" are files present in the working directory that Git does not monitor or include in version history.

When you create new files in a Git repository, they are untracked by default and will not appear in commits.

Listing Untracked Files

Use git status to see which files are untracked; in Sourcetree you can right‑click each file to discard, but selecting many files one by one is cumbersome.

Therefore, using Git commands to discard untracked files is recommended.

Removing Untracked Files

To delete untracked files (and optionally directories), use git clean. Adding the -d flag also removes untracked directories.

Without -d, git clean only deletes files, leaving directories untouched.

The -f flag forces deletion without prompting for confirmation.

After running the clean command with -f, run git status again to verify that the working tree is clean.

Reverting a Pushed Commit

When a commit has been pushed but is no longer needed, you can revert it instead of force‑pushing.

One approach is to reset the branch head to the previous commit and then force‑push:

git reset --hard HEAD

git push --force-with-lease

This rewrites remote history and can disrupt other collaborators, so it is not the preferred method.

Using git revert to Undo a Commit

First, find the commit hash with git log. git log Then run: git revert <commit-hash> Replace <commit-hash> with the actual hash and push the new revert commit: git push origin <branch-name> This method creates a new commit that undoes the changes, preserving history and avoiding conflicts for other developers.

Summary

The article covers two common Git scenarios: batch‑removing untracked files with git clean and safely reverting unwanted pushes using git revert instead of force‑pushes, helping maintain clean history and reduce branch conflicts.