JuliaSprenger/remove_git-annex_history.md

## remove_git-annex_history.md

      
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              remove_git-annex_history.md
            
          
    How to remove the history from a git-annex repository.

Here we are reducing the commit log of git and git-annex branches to a single commit.
The following lines assume the repository has only a single remote 'origin', on which the history of the commits will also be reduced to a single commit.
Note: Don't change the history of publicly shared repositories as this will lead to in inconsistent histories between different local copies of the repository.
Resetting local branches to a single commit

Squashing the master branch
git reset $(git commit-tree HEAD^{tree} -m "<Your single commit message>")
Squashing git-annex branch
git annex forget --drop-dead --force
Force pushing modified branches

git push -f origin master
git checkout git-annex
git push -f origin git-annex

... and switching back to the master branch
git checkout master
Removing inconsistent synched branches

Deleting synced/... branches locally
git branch -D synced/master
git branch -D synced/git-annex

Deleting synced/... branches remotely
git push -d origin synced/master
git push -d origin synced/git-annex

Verify the result

Now git should only be aware of 4 branches in total (2 local and 2 remote)
git branch -a should print
git-annex
* master
remotes/origin/git-annex
remotes/origin/master

The removed synced/... branches should be automatically recreated when continuing to work with the repository.