Generally when I invoke git rm <filename>, I do so with the intention of removing a file from the project entirely. git-rm does exactly that, removing the file both from the index and from the working tree.

If you want to untrack a file (remove it from the index), but still have it available locally (in the working tree), then you are going to want to use the --cached flag.

$ git rm --cached <filename>

If you do this, you may also consider adding that file to the .gitignore file.

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