inspiration #
My original inspiration for this post came from steven ostermiller’s blog post that no longer exists from my last check in May, 2024.
https://blog.ostermiller.org/removing-and-purging-files-from-git-history/
I was able to find it on the way back machine though.
git log --all --pretty=format: --name-only --diff-filter=D | sed -r 's|[^/]+$||g' | sort -u
git filter-branch --tag-name-filter cat --index-filter 'git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch FILE_LIST' --prune-empty -f -- --all
rm -rf .git/refs/original/
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --aggressive --prune=now
git push origin --force --all
git push origin --force --tags
cd MY_LOCAL_GIT_REPO
git fetch origin
git rebase
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --aggressive --prune=now