Hello 👋🏼

The .gitignore file in a Git repository is used to specify files and directories that should be ignored by Git. It doesn't actually delete files; rather, it tells Git to ignore them when tracking changes.

On your .gitignore file and add the filename or pattern of the file you want to stop tracking. For example:

# .gitignore
filename.txt           <- this is the name of the file

After saving the files, and committing the changes to the repository, Git will no longer track changes to the specified file, and it won't appear in your future commits. However, the file will still exist in your working directory.

If you wanna delete the file from your working directory you can try doing:
git rm filename.txt <- to do this you don't need to use git

Hope this helps!

The .gitignore file in a Git repository is used to specify intentionally untracked files that Git should ignore. It doesn't have the capability to delete files. If you want to remove a file from your Git repository and stop tracking it, you need to follow these steps:

• Add the file to the .gitignore file (if not already added):
  Open your .gitignore file and add the filename or pattern of the file you want to ignore. If the file is already being tracked, this won't untrack it, but it will prevent it from being added in the future.

• Remove the file from the Git repository:
  Use the following commands in your terminal or command prompt to stop tracking the file:

git rm --cached filename
Replace filename with the actual name of the file you want to untrack.

This command removes the file from the staging area (the area where you prepare changes for the next commit) and also removes it from the tracking index. However, it does not delete the file from your local filesystem.

• Commit the changes:
  After removing the file from tracking, commit the changes to apply them to the repository:

git commit -m "Stop tracking filename"
This commits the changes and includes the removal of the specified file.

After these steps, the file is no longer tracked by Git, and it won't appear in future commits. However, it's important to note that these steps only affect your local repository. If the file was previously committed and pushed to a remote repository, you may want to notify your collaborators about this change, especially if they need to update their local repositories.