How to permanently delete a file stored in GIT? [duplicate]

Answer 1

I always find Guides: Completely remove a file from all revisions feed helpful.

To remove the file called Rakefile:

git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
  'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch Rakefile' \
  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

This command will run the entire history of every branch and tag, changing any commit that involved the file Rakefile, and any commits afterwards. Commits that are empty afterwards (because they only changed the Rakefile) are removed entirely.

Answer 2

Update for remote repository:

git filter-branch -f --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch FOLDERNAME" -- --all

replace FOLDERNAME with the file or folder you wish to remove from the given git repository.

rm -rf .git/refs/original/

git reflog expire --expire=now --all

git gc --prune=now

git gc --aggressive --prune=now

Now push all the changes to the remote repository

git push --all --force

This would clean up the remote repository.

Answer 3

You can also use bfg for ease.

The BFG is a simpler, faster alternative to git-filter-branch for cleansing bad data out of your Git repository history:

Removing Crazy Big Files Removing Passwords, Credentials & other Private data

$ bfg --delete-files YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA

Or just replace all the occurrences of some file:

$ bfg --replace-text passwords.txt

check https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/ and https://help.github.com/articles/removing-sensitive-data-from-a-repository/

Answer 4

I would like to share most simplest and easy to understand solution which worked for me.

First clone a fresh copy of your repo, using the --mirror flag:

git clone --mirror https://github.com/username/youproject.git

Then Download latest version of BFG jar file from https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/ rename it as bfg.jar and paste it inside YourRepoName.git folder.

Then run following lines in git bash.

java -jar bfg.jar --delete-files yourfilename (only file name is needed, no need to mention path)

git reflog expire --expire=now --all && git gc --prune=now --aggressive (it will strip out the unwanted dirty data which has been expelled out due to above command)

I faced issue here. My project was having open pull requests. If there are any open pull requests then you need to run this command

git show-ref | cut -d' ' -f2 | grep 'pull-request' | xargs -r -L1 git update-ref -d

After this you can simply push master branch.

git push -u origin master

Its done. But remember to keep a copy in local of old repository before performing above action. All unmerged branches and open pull requests may get deleted.

I reduced my repo size from 40mb to 4mb by removing unwanted apk files which got pushed with my commits.

Answer 5

You can with git filter-branch's --index-filter.