A bash script for removing .gitignore files from git history

repoclean.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -o errexit
 
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "No directories specified. Exiting."
  exit
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

# get files from gitignore files in argument directories
files=""
for dir in "$@"
do
  fileArr=()
  if [ -d "$dir" ]; then
    cd $dir
    dir=$dir"/"
    fileArr=( $(git ls-files -i --exclude-from=.gitignore) )
    fileArr=( "${fileArr[@]/#/$dir}" )
    files=$files$( IFS=$' '; echo "${fileArr[*]}" )
    cd ..
  else
    echo "directory \"$dir\" does not exist. Exiting."
    exit
  fi
done

echo $files

echo "filter-branch"
git filter-branch -f --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch $files" HEAD

# remove the temporary history git-filter-branch otherwise leaves behind for a long time
echo "rm refs"
rm -rf .git/refs/original/ && git reflog expire --all &&  git gc --aggressive --prune