Purge a file from history
Git, Repository, Remote · Apr 13, 2021

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 -- --all
to rewrite the branch's history, passing it the previous command. - You can optionally use
git push <remote> --force -all
to force push the changes to the remote repository. - ⚠️ WARNING: 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
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
Written by Angelos Chalaris
I'm Angelos Chalaris, a JavaScript software engineer, based in Athens, Greece. The best snippets from my coding adventures are published here to help others learn to code.
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