diff --git a/read-cache-ll.h b/read-cache-ll.h
index 71b87615eb..8eb266cfd1 100644
--- a/read-cache-ll.h
+++ b/read-cache-ll.h
@@ -391,11 +391,14 @@ int remove_index_entry_at(struct index_state *, int pos);
 
 void remove_marked_cache_entries(struct index_state *istate, int invalidate);
 int remove_file_from_index(struct index_state *, const char *path);
+int remove_file_from_index_with_flags(struct index_state *, const char *, int);
+
 #define ADD_CACHE_VERBOSE 1
 #define ADD_CACHE_PRETEND 2
 #define ADD_CACHE_IGNORE_ERRORS	4
 #define ADD_CACHE_IGNORE_REMOVAL 8
 #define ADD_CACHE_INTENT 16
+
 /*
  * These two are used to add the contents of the file at path
  * to the index, marking the working tree up-to-date by storing
diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c
index 58c378414a..ad77c0d5e2 100644
--- a/read-cache.c
+++ b/read-cache.c
@@ -638,6 +638,20 @@ int remove_file_from_index(struct index_state *istate, const char *path)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+int remove_file_from_index_with_flags(struct index_state *istate,
+				      const char *path,
+				      int flags)
+{
+	int verbose = flags & (ADD_CACHE_VERBOSE | ADD_CACHE_PRETEND);
+	int pretend = flags & ADD_CACHE_PRETEND;
+
+	if (verbose)
+		printf(_("remove '%s'\n"), path);
+	if (pretend)
+		return 0;
+	return remove_file_from_index(istate, path);
+}
+
 static int compare_name(struct cache_entry *ce, const char *path, int namelen)
 {
 	return namelen != ce_namelen(ce) || memcmp(path, ce->name, namelen);
@@ -4004,10 +4018,7 @@ static void update_callback(struct diff_queue_struct *q,
 		case DIFF_STATUS_DELETED:
 			if (data->flags & ADD_CACHE_IGNORE_REMOVAL)
 				break;
-			if (!(data->flags & ADD_CACHE_PRETEND))
-				remove_file_from_index(data->index, path);
-			if (data->flags & (ADD_CACHE_PRETEND|ADD_CACHE_VERBOSE))
-				printf(_("remove '%s'\n"), path);
+			remove_file_from_index_with_flags(data->index, path, data->flags);
 			break;
 		}
 	}