remove file from git history

remove_file_from_git_hist.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -o errexit

# Original from David Underhill @ http://dound.com/2009/04/git-forever-remove-files-or-folders-from-history/
# 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=$@

# you could add <introduction-revision-sha1>..HEAD here to limit to the number of commits
# see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/872565/how-do-i-remove-sensitive-files-from-gits-history
git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch $files" 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