How to remove node_modules after they have been added to a repo

remove-node-modules.md

How to remove node_modules

Create a .gitignore file

1. Check for an existing .gitignore file in the project directory

ls -a

2. If your project directory has a .gitingore file - skip to step 3. Otherwise, continue with:

Create a .gitignore file in the git repository

touch .gitignore

Remove the node_modules directory

3. Open up the .gitignore and add the following line to the file

**/node_modules

4. Remove the node_modules folder from the git repository

git rm -r --cached node_modules

Commit All Changes

5. Commit the git repository without the node_modules folder

git commit -m "Removed node_modules folder"

6. Push the change to the remote repo

git push origin main

7. Commit the .gitignore file

git add .gitignore
git commit -m "Updated the .gitignore file"
git push origin main

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The is a missing a quote after the message for committing the .gitignore file. Since I cant fork and create a pull request for a gist, below are the recommended changes I made in a copy.

6) After all of that, you should also add the gitignore and commit it to the repository

```bash
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "Updated the .gitignore file"
git push origin master
```

@SeaRauber Thanks for the catch on the missing quotes and the suggestion. I updated with your suggested change - and made an attempt to update the format overall. However, I'm not happy with that formatting. I'll make another commit that cleans it up more later today.

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Don't we have to edit **/node_modules back to node_modules inside .gitignore file?

Don't we have to edit **/node_modules back to node_modules inside .gitignore file?

@BekzodIsakov A leading **/ in a .gitignore file will allow files and folders to be ignored in the current or any descendant directory rather than just the current directory. This is useful in apps with separate packages for the client & server, for example.

If I have a directory structure like

• .gitignore
• client
  • node_modules
• server
  • node_modules

The **/node_modules will still ignore the node_modules folder.

The **/ is not necessary if only the node_modules folder will be at the same level as the .gitignore file.

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👍