How to Remove Tracked Level 2 .idea Subfolders in Your Git Repository

When working with Git, you might encounter situations where certain directories, like .idea folders commonly created by JetBrains IDEs, are unintentionally tracked.

It can be very annoying eventually (trust me).

This tutorial will guide you through efficiently removing .idea subfolders located at the second level of your repository while preventing them from being tracked in the future.

How to Remove and Ignore Level 2 .idea Folders

Step 1: Remove .idea Subfolders from Git Index

To remove ".idea" directories specifically at the second level of your repository structure without deleting them from your file system, follow these steps:

Use the find command to locate these directories and remove them from the Git index. Let imagine you organize all your java projects in a folder named java.

Open your terminal and execute:

find ./java -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 2 -type d -name ".idea" -print0 | xargs -0 -I {} git rm -r --cached {}

This command will search for ".idea" folders two levels deep and remove them from tracking if they exist.

The xargs option is to prevent your terminal from stopping the command if he didn't find a subfolder .idea.

Step 2: Update Your .gitignore File

To prevent Git from tracking these directories again, update your .gitignore file located at the root of your repository. Add the following line:

*/.idea
##/idea

These lines ensure that any ".idea" folder at the second level or deeper won't be tracked in the future.

Step 3: Commit Your Changes

After untracking the directories and updating your .gitignore file, commit the changes to your repository:

git commit -m "Remove level 2 .idea directories from tracking"

This command will commit the removal of  ".idea" folders from the tracking index and update the .gitignore configuration.

Step 4: Verification

To verify that the ".idea" directories are no longer tracked, you can use:

git status

This will show you the current status of your repository and confirm that the ".idea" folders are successfully ignored.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can effectively manage your repository, ensuring unnecessary directories like ".idea" are not tracked. This keeps your repository clean and focused only on the files that matter. Remember, routine maintenance of your .gitignore file is crucial as your projects evolve.