git - unable to remove file that really exists - fatal: pathspec ... did not match any files

Question

unable to remove file that really exists - fatal: pathspec ... did not match any files

I have a file under git control that simply will not be deleted. The failing command is:

$ git rm .idea/workspace.xml
fatal: pathspec '.idea/workspace.xml' did not match any files

Below I list the directory contents, branches, etc. So far I've tried rm from within the directory, and escaping just in case there are funny characters, and I'm really stumped. I searched the web and SO but couldn't find this specifically.

$ git branch -a
* dot-output
  master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/modelspace
$ 

$ git status
# On branch dot-output
# Untracked files:
# ...

$ ls .idea/
ant.xml         encodings.xml       modules.xml     workspace.xml
compiler.xml        inspectionProfiles  scopes
copyright       libraries       testrunner.xml
dictionaries        misc.xml        vcs.xml

$ ls -al
total 56
drwxr-xr-x  16 matt  staff    544 Apr 10 11:33 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 33 matt  staff   1122 Apr 10 09:40 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 matt  staff  12292 Apr 10 11:19 .DS_Store
drwxr-xr-x  18 matt  staff    612 Apr 10 11:39 .git
-rw-r--r--   1 matt  staff     98 Mar  6 13:40 .gitignore
drwxr-xr-x  16 matt  staff    544 Apr 10 11:34 .idea
-rw-r--r--   1 matt  staff   1113 Feb 25 11:07 README
...

$ head -n 2 .idea/workspace.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project version="4">

$ git rm .idea/workspace.xml
fatal: pathspec '.idea/workspace.xml' did not match any files

Update

Answers from @Nevik and @Boris helped a lot. I realized that I was confused by a number of things going on, some of which were exacerbated by IntelliJ IDEA (a tool I generally love, BTW). First, the 'fatal: pathspec' message from git rm is both unhelpful and misleading.

Second, I had the file in .gitignore, but had removed it before asking my question. However, it was also included in IDEA's Ignored Files feature independently of git, and showed as such in the project viewer (instead of untracked, as git status showed). Finally, I had IDEA running while I was experimenting, and it looks like it was recreating the file immediately after my rm.

My takeaway is that if I'm getting confusing Git behavior, make sure to quit IDEA and work solely in the command line (and gitk) while debugging.

Answer 1

Your file .idea/workspace.xml is not under git version control. You have either not added it yet (check git status/Untracked files) or ignored it (using .gitignore or .git/info/exclude files)

You can verify it using following git command, that lists all ignored files:

git ls-files --others -i --exclude-standard