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@smalot
Created July 22, 2014 11:24
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#!/bin/bash
set -o errexit
# Author: David Underhill
# Script to permanently delete files/folders from your git repository. To use
# it, cd to your repository's root and then run the script with a list of paths
# you want to delete, e.g., git-delete-history path1 path2
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
exit 0
fi
# make sure we're at the root of git repo
if [ ! -d .git ]; then
echo "Error: must run this script from the root of a git repository"
exit 1
fi
# remove all paths passed as arguments from the history of the repo
files=$@
git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch $files" HEAD
# remove the temporary history git-filter-branch otherwise leaves behind for a long time
rm -rf .git/refs/original/ && git reflog expire --all && git gc --aggressive --prune
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smalot commented Jul 22, 2014

After that, you'll need to push with "--force" flag due to non "fast forward" system.

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