git rm --cached <filename>是否会删除工作区文件？附实操流程

Great question — let's cut straight to the chase: Absolutely not. This command only removes the file from Git's index (the staging area that tracks which files Git cares about), leaving your actual working directory file completely intact.

Let's walk through your exact workflow to confirm this behavior:

• You started with ~/Desktop/git_que on branch brA, with files book.json, README.md, SUMMARY.md in your working directory.
• You added README.md to .gitignore to tell Git to ignore it going forward.
• When you ran git rm --cached README.md, the output rm 'README.md' refers to removing the file from Git's tracked index, not deleting it from your filesystem.
• After staging the changes with git add . and checking git status, the "deleted: README.md" entry in your staged changes is Git recording that it's no longer tracking this file — not that the file was erased from your working directory.

If you run ls again in your working directory right now, you'll still see README.md sitting there. The command only modifies Git's internal tracking state, not your local files.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者SEGV