Today I did a local commit ready to be pushed to GitHub.com.
That is when I realised I also added a scratch file that is used for storing my notes.
The steps below show how to resolve the issue.
When working locally without a remote repository
- To unstage all locally committed files
 
1
$ git reset
- To unstage a specific locally committed file
 
1
$ git reset scratch
To understand the problem properly, let us try to reproduce the scenario again, and then use the above solution to resolve the issue.
When working locally without a remote repository
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$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ test git init
$ touch file1
$ echo "add this file to git" > file1 
$ touch scratch
$ echo "do not add this file to git" > scratch
$ git status
    On branch master
    
    No commits yet
    
    Untracked files:
      (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
    
        file1
        scratch
    
    nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
$ git add .
$ git status
    On branch master
    
    No commits yet
    Changes to be committed:
      (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
    
    	new file:   file1
    	new file:   scratch
$ #oops !
$ #I added both the files by mistake, now let us use the abvoe solution to resolve this
$ git reset
$ git status                                                                            
  On branch master
  
  No commits yet
  
  Untracked files:
    (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
  
  	file1
  	scratch
  
  nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)