git rm --cached <pathname>
Remove files only from the git index
This command removes files from the git index, which means they will no longer be tracked by git. However, it does not delete the files from the file system.
The --cached flag ensures the files are not deleted from the file system, despite the rm command removing them from the repository
Some potential variations of this command include using the -r flag to recursively remove a directory and its contents, or using the --dry-run flag to check what would be removed without actually performing the operation.
Specific examples:
git rm --cached .DS_Store