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Tip of the day: Forcing a file in to your Git repository

29 Aug 2013 ~ 1 min read


Normally, you’ll have a .gitignore file that defines what should not go into a git repository. If you find that there is a file or two that is ignored that you really need in the repository (e.g. a DLL dependency in a BIN folder for some legacy application that doesn’t do NuGet, or other package management) then you need a way to force that into Git.

The command you need is this:

git add --force <filename>

Replace <filename> with the file that you need to force in. This will force stage the file ready for your next commit. You can also use . in place of a file name to force in an entire directory, or you can use wild cards to determine what is staged. Afterwards you can use

git status

to see that it has been staged.


Headshot of Colin Mackay

Hi, I'm Colin. I'm a software engineer with over 30 years of experience based in central Scotland, specialising in Microsoft technologies, initially with C++ and then in C#. I was a Microsoft MVP from 2007 to 2010 and a Code Project MVP from 2005 to 2009.