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@rriemann
Created March 18, 2013 13:50
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Remove files entirely from git repo
#!/bin/bash
# http://dound.com/2009/04/git-forever-remove-files-or-folders-from-history/
# https://help.github.com/articles/remove-sensitive-data
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 --force --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch $files" --prune-empty 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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