Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@heiswayi
Created February 5, 2017 01:32
Show Gist options
  • Save heiswayi/350e2afda8cece810c0f6116dadbe651 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save heiswayi/350e2afda8cece810c0f6116dadbe651 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
GitHub - Delete commits history with git commands

First Method

Deleting the .git folder may cause problems in our git repository. If we want to delete all of our commits history, but keep the code in its current state, try this:

# Check out to a temporary branch:
git checkout --orphan TEMP_BRANCH

# Add all the files:
git add -A

# Commit the changes:
git commit -am "Initial commit"

# Delete the old branch:
git branch -D master

# Rename the temporary branch to master:
git branch -m master

# Finally, force update to our repository:
git push -f origin master

This will not keep our old commits history around. But if this doesn't work, try the next method below.

Second Method

# Clone the project, e.g. `myproject` is my project repository:
git clone https://github/heiswayi/myproject.git

# Since all of the commits history are in the `.git` folder, we have to remove it:
cd myproject

# And delete the `.git` folder:
git rm -rf .git

# Now, re-initialize the repository:
git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/heiswayi/myproject.git
git remote -v

# Add all the files and commit the changes:
git add --all
git commit -am "Initial commit"

# Force push update to the master branch of our project repository:
git push -f origin master

NOTE: You might need to provide the credentials for your GitHub account.

@Galaxy83
Copy link

thanks

@chauhanh
Copy link

First method, worked perfectly! Thank you very much.

@ikhwanperwira
Copy link

How about delete specific commit history without delete its content by commit id?

@Anandanumasankar
Copy link

i dont know where to run these comments could you please help me

@mkgeeky
Copy link

mkgeeky commented Aug 9, 2022

i dont know where to run these comments could you please help me

You can run the commands via ssh

@trinib
Copy link

trinib commented Aug 9, 2022

i dont know where to run these comments could you please help me

Can use git as well https://git-scm.com/downloads

@hrithikram15
Copy link

### Really Helpful... Thanks a lot

If someone is trying second method & are unable to delete the ".git" folder using command git rm -rf .git (as specified),
I suggest you to just use the command rm -rf .git

It works...

@droodman
Copy link

Just what I needed!

@haiueom
Copy link

haiueom commented Feb 6, 2023

Thanks 👍

@colossus06
Copy link

works like a charm ☺

@skewll
Copy link

skewll commented May 2, 2023

Thanks, 1st worked perfectly.

@jameszenartist
Copy link

Thank you so much for this! The first solution worked great.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment