Purge a file from history
Completely purges a file from history.
- Use
git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch <path>to delete the file in the specified<path>. - Use
git filter-branch --force --index-filter <command> --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --allto rewrite the branch's history, passing it the previous command. - You can optionally use
git push <remote> --force --allto force push the changes to the remote repository.
This is a destructive action that rewrites the history of the entire repository. Make sure you know what you are doing.
git filter-branch --force --index-filter \ "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch <path>" \ --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all git push <remote> --force --all # Examples git filter-branch --force --index-filter \ "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch config/apiKeys.json" \ --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all # Purges `config/apiKeys.json` from history git push origin --force --all # Force pushes the changes to the remote repository
