New update suggestion by Pat Decker for https://linuxhandbook.com/git-clean/

[abhishekpc]

I think maybe the clean.requireForce False explanation may be backward.

I asked Copilot:

When using the git clean command with clean.requireForce set to false do I need to use the -f flag to force a delete?

When you use the git clean command with clean.requireForce set to false, you do not necessarily need to use the -f flag to force a delete. Let me explain:

1. By default, if clean.requireForce is not set to false, git clean will refuse to delete files or directories unless you provide one of the following flags:

   • -f: Forces the deletion of untracked files even if clean.requireForce is set to true.
   • -i: Provides an interactive way to clean each file.
   • -n: Shows which files would be removed without actually performing the deletion.

2. If you want to override the default behavior and allow git clean to proceed without requiring the -f flag, you have two options:

   • Set clean.requireForce to false in your .gitconfig using this command:

     git config --local clean.requireForce false

     You can also use --global instead of --local to set it globally for all future repositories you initialize.

3. Keep in mind that git clean will still refuse to modify untracked nested Git repositories (directories with a .git subdirectory) unless a second -f is given¹²³.

In summary, if you've set clean.requireForce to false, you can use git clean without the -f flag to delete untracked files. However, if you encounter nested Git repositories, you'll need to provide -f twice to override the refusal behavior.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 4/3/2024 (1) git - fatal: clean.requireForce defaults to true and neither -i, -n .... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34542204/fatal-clean-requireforce-defaults-to-true-and-neither-i-n-nor-f-given-ref. (2) Git - git-clean Documentation. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-clean/2.22.0. (3) Git - git-clean Documentation. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-clean/2.3.10. (4) Git - git-clean Documentation. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-clean.

[thefossguy]

As per man git-config:

clean.requireForce A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f, -i, or -n. Defaults to true.

What I wrote:

-f [or] --force : Git has a configuration variable clean.requireForce, which, if set to false, Git will refuse to delete anything. The -f flag is used to override that variable.

So I wrote wrong/made typo (can't recall the real reason). If clean.requireForce is set to true, the -f/--force option will be required for git to clean anything.

Also, the default value for clean.requireForce is true.

So the reader's query is legitimate and this needs to be changed.