How to remove a file from git without removing it from your file system?

If you are not careful during a git add, you may end up adding files that you didn’t want to commit. However, git rm will remove it from both your staging area (index), as well as your file system (working tree), which may not be what you want.

Instead use git reset:

git reset filename          # or
echo filename >> .gitingore # add it to .gitignore to avoid re-adding it

This means that git reset <paths> is the opposite of git add <paths>.