The epic git 💣
By Chen Hui Jing / @hj_chen
Some background
🎮 🏀 🚲 💻 👟
My name is Chen Hui Jing.
Self taught designer and developer.
Write blog posts from time to time.
Love HTML and CSS very much.
A little back-story
+ + =The repo does not forget
Step 1: git filter-branch
git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch FOLDER_NAME' --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --allgit filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch FOLDER_NAME' --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
Hey, it's a pretty long line. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
filter-branch --index-filter- The
filter-branchcommand allows you to rewrite the Git history - Can apply filters to modify information about each commit
--index-filterrewrites the index- Possible to use
--tree-filterbut--index-filteris faster because it does not check out the tree
'git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch FOLDER_NAME'- Used with
--index-filterfor optimal results - Removes file(s) recursively (
rm) and forcefully(-rf) --cachedis used to unstage and remove paths from the index--ignore-unmatchwill prevent the command from failing if the file is absent from the tree of a commit
--prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat--prune-emptyallows the filter-branch command to ignore empty commits generated by the filters applied-tag-name-filter catwill update the relevant tags by rewriting them
-- --all--simply separates the filter-branch options from the revision options--allwill rewrite ALL branches and tags- Official documentation for
git filter-branch
Step 2: git prune
git prune- Prunes all unreachable objects from the object database
- Removes objects that are no longer being referenced
- Official documentation for
git prune
Step 3: remove old references
rm -rf .git/refs/original/- Removes any old references to the unwanted folder/file
- Branches, remote-tracking branches, and tags are all references to commits
- All references are named with a slash-separated path name starting with "refs"
Step 4: git reflog
git reflog expire --expire=now --all- To manage reference log information
expireis used to prune older reflog entries--expire=nowspecifies how far behind these older entries should be, in this case, right now- Official documentation for
git reflog
Step 5: git gc
git gc --prune=now- Cleans up unnecessary files and optimises the local repository
--prune=nowprunes objects older than the date specified, in this case, right now- Official documentation for
git gc
Step 6: clone to new repo
git clone --no-hardlinks file://PATH/TO/OLD-REPO NEW-REPO- Gives a "clean" repository with the history rewritten to remove target folder, with all other commits intact
Houston, we got a problem
- Force pushing these changes up to remote didn't work 😭
- Create a new remote repository and push the clean repo up there
- Asked everyone to change their remote origin
- Only works if nobody pulled from the time you screwed up and the time you fixed things
