Removing Files¶

There are two different questions when you remove a file from a git-drs repository:

1. Do you just want to remove the path from Git?
2. Do you also want the pushed deletion to reconcile remote DRS state for that object?

For tracked git-drs files, the recommended command is git drs rm.

Which Command To Use¶

Use git drs rm for tracked git-drs files¶

git drs rm DATA/subject-123/vcf/sample1.vcf.gz

Use this when you want the supported Git-DRS delete workflow.

What it does immediately:

• validates that the path is a tracked git-drs file
• removes the path from the worktree and index
• stages the deletion through normal Git

What happens later, when the deletion is committed and pushed:

• git-drs derives deleted pointers from the pushed Git commit delta
• if the object is still live somewhere else in the pushed repo state, only the local path deletion is reconciled
• if the scoped record has exactly one controlled_access resource, the remote record is deleted
• if the record has multiple controlled_access resources, only the current organization/project resource is removed

Use git rm for ordinary Git-managed files¶

git rm README.md

Use this for files that are not tracked by git-drs.

Typical Tracked-File Removal Flow¶

git drs rm DATA/subject-123/vcf/sample1.vcf.gz
git commit -m "Remove sample"
git drs push

That is the supported tracked-object delete flow.

Best Practice¶

For data objects managed by git-drs, prefer:

git drs rm <path>
git commit -m "Remove tracked object"
git drs push