Git Erase

WEB

Demonstrates erasing traces of files from Git history. Based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/872700/2715716.

The Setup

• Make a file/directory in its initial form
• Make changes to it and include changes to other files if you want to as well
• Run the command to erase the traces of the file/directory (replacing $*_PATH):

File: git filter-branch --force --index-filter "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch $FILE_PATH" --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

Directory: git filter-branch --force --index-filter "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch -r $DIRECTORY_PATH" --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

See why cat

• Check the new history: git push --force --verbose --dry-run
• Rewrite the history on the remote: git push --force

To-Do

Fix the workflow not deleting the history