Remove sensistive data from git commit history

remove_sensitive_data_from_gh.md

Step 1

$ git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
  "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch PATH-TO-YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA" \
  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
  > Rewrite 48dc599c80e20527ed902928085e7861e6b3cbe6 (266/266)
  > Ref 'refs/heads/master' was rewritten

Step 2

$ echo "YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA" >> .gitignore
$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -m "Add YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA to .gitignore"
> [master 051452f] Add YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA to .gitignore
>  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

Step 3

$ git push origin --force --all
> Counting objects: 1074, done.
> Delta compression using 2 threads.
> Compressing objects: 100% (677/677), done.
> Writing objects: 100% (1058/1058), 148.85 KiB, done.
> Total 1058 (delta 590), reused 602 (delta 378)
> To https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-REPOSITORY.git
>  + 48dc599...051452f master -> master (forced update)

Step 4 (Optional)

$ git for-each-ref --format="delete %(refname)" refs/original | git update-ref --stdin
$ git reflog expire --expire=now --all
$ git gc --prune=now
> Counting objects: 2437, done.
> Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
> Compressing objects: 100% (1378/1378), done.
> Writing objects: 100% (2437/2437), done.
> Total 2437 (delta 1461), reused 1802 (delta 1048)