Don't want to commit a file

[carolyn cheng]

I have a file I need to change on my local system.  I don't want to commit it.  I don't want to remove it from repository either.  How should I do that?

[Tim Crall]

Can you just refrain from staging it when you do future commits?

[Balázs Szakmáry]

If you always need to modify it, but not commit it, it probably should not be under source control. Delete it, commit the deletion, and add it to the .gitignore file. (Restore the file afterwards, if/when needed locally.) It will never show up as an uncommitted change.