Untrack or stop tracking files that have been included in the git repo

To stop Git from tracking the files you've added to your .gitignore (such as /web/themes/custom/zerotouch/mix-manifest.json and /web/themes/custom/zerotouch/build/), you need to remove them from the Git index (staging area) while keeping the files locally on your system. Here's how to resolve this:

Steps to Stop Tracking the Files:

1. Ensure the files are in .gitignore:

First, make sure the paths you want to ignore are correctly added to your .gitignore file:

/web/themes/custom/my_theme/mix-manifest.json
/web/themes/custom/my_theme/build/

2. Remove the files from the Git index (staging area):

Use the git rm --cached command to remove the files from the Git index (so Git will stop tracking them) but leave the files on your local machine. This command will untrack the files but won't delete them locally.

git rm --cached web/themes/custom/my_theme/mix-manifest.json
git rm --cached -r web/themes/custom/my_theme/build/

• The --cached option tells Git to only remove the files from the index, not from the filesystem.

• The -r flag for the rm command ensures that the entire build/ directory is untracked.

3. Commit the change:

After removing the files from the index, you need to commit this change. This will remove the files from your Git history (and from the repository), while still keeping them on your local machine.

git commit -m "Stop tracking mix-manifest.json and build directory" 

4. Push the commit:

If you're working with a remote repository (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket), push the changes to the remote: 

git push origin your-branch-name

4. What This Does:

• After these steps, the files will no longer be tracked by Git, but they will remain on your local filesystem.

• Future commits will ignore these files due to the .gitignore settings.

Important Notes:

• If the files were already pushed to the remote repository previously, you’ll need to push this change to remove them from the repository history.

• If you're working with a shared repository and need to remove the files from the repository entirely (e.g., to reduce repository size), you might also consider using Git filter-branch or BFG Repo-Cleaner to remove the files from the entire Git history. But this step is usually only necessary if you're looking to permanently delete sensitive files from the repo.

Summary of the Solution:

1. Add the necessary exclusions to .gitignore.

2. Use git rm --cached to untrack the files.

3. Commit and push the changes.

This will stop Git from tracking the files while keeping them locally, resolving the issue.