How to fix fatal: pathspec 'file.txt' did not match any files in Git

First, verify whether Git knows about this file:

git ls-files | grep filename

Or check the status:

git status

If the file doesn't appear in the tracked files list or shows as "untracked," that's why git rm fails—there's nothing for Git to remove.

If you already deleted the file using the regular rm command and now want to stage that deletion for commit, use:

git add -u

This stages all modifications and deletions of already-tracked files. Alternatively, target the specific file:

git add path/to/deleted-file.txt

Yes, you use git add to stage a deletion—Git tracks the change, not the existence.

For files that were never added to Git, just use the regular rm command:

rm path/to/file.txt

Or to remove a directory:

rm -rf path/to/directory/

Since Git doesn't track these files, there's no need to use git rm.

On case-sensitive filesystems (Linux, macOS by default), File.txt and file.txt are different files. Verify the exact name:

ls -la | grep -i filename

If there's a case mismatch, use the exact case as shown by ls:

git rm "File.txt"  # Use exact case

On Windows, Git may track a file with different case than what the filesystem shows. Check what Git sees:

git ls-files | grep -i filename

Make sure you're in the correct directory or using the right path. If you're not at the repository root:

# From repo root
git rm src/components/file.txt

# Or use absolute path from repo root
git rm ./path/from/current/dir/file.txt

You can also navigate to the file's directory first:

cd src/components
git rm file.txt

If you're writing scripts or want to avoid errors when files might not exist, use the --ignore-unmatch flag:

git rm --ignore-unmatch file.txt

This exits with zero status even if no files matched. Useful for CI/CD pipelines and automation scripts.

To remove a directory and all its contents, you need the -r flag:

git rm -r path/to/directory/

Without -r, Git will not recursively remove directory contents and may fail with this error if you specify just the directory name.