Git: Remove files from history which named like a CLI option

Question

I accidentally added a huge file to my repo (~250 MB) with the name --exclude. This file was generated on OS X while I was writing some new code for this repo. Now, I was trying to learn how to delete it from Git's history from here and here. The tutorials are nice and clear, but the problem is that Git "thinks" --exclude is not a file but an option.

When I run this command:

git filter-branch \
    --index-filter "git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch '--exclude' " HEAD

Git complains:

error: unknown option `exclude'
usage: git rm [<options>] [--] <file>...

I tried to use file's sha number but it changed nothing.What is the correct way to delete such a files?

Can you try using wildcards? Not sure what git accepts but perhaps `*exclude` ? — Lasse V. Karlsen, Feb 28 '16 at 09:59
@LasseV.Karlsen Yes, you can. Nice idea! See [my answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/35681754/674064). — das-g, Feb 28 '16 at 11:15

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

Try at least to separate the git rm options from the file parameters, using a '--' (double-hyphen)

 git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch -- '--exclude' " HEAD
                                                                       ^^
                                                                 (double-hyphen)

See more on the double hyphen syntax in "Deleting a badly named git branch".

Lol4t0 · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-28T10:48:30.363

3

Common UNIX way of constructing argument line is

<command> <keys&arguments> [--] <arguments>

In you case

command: git rm
keys: -r --cached --ignore-unmatch
arguments: '--exclude'

Usually keys are detected by leading -s.

But you can always force move them to arguments by explicitly writing them in the arguments part of the line using -- So you get

git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch -- '--exclude' " HEAD

edited Feb 28 '16 at 10:48

answered Feb 28 '16 at 10:29

Lol4t0

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Note that what this answer calls 'keys' are also often called 'options' and that keys/options are arguments, too, so that what this answer calls 'arguments' are sometimes called 'non-option arguments'. Further note that (other than many other UNIX commands) with most (probably all) git subcommands, you can't put arbitrary non-option arguments after the `--` separator, but only files and directories. – das-g Feb 28 '16 at 11:21

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

The recommended way to do this is to use the -- separator as seen in the answers by VonC and Lol4t0 and to put the file name after it.

But using wildcards to avoid the --… part of --exclude, as Lasse suggests in a comment works indeed, too, as Git seems to do its own wildcard expansion, independent of the shell.

If you were just using it in a single, manual git rm, you'd have to either

escape it:

git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch \*exclude

or

quote it

git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch '*exclude'

or

delete the actual file first

rm ./--exclude
git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch *exclude

so that the shell doesn't already perform the expansion and the wildcard is passed to Git at all. But in

git filter-branch \
    --index-filter "git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch *exclude" HEAD

the whole inner command is quoted anyway, and git filter-branch doesn't seem to invoke the shell to interpret it, so this works as-is. (Usage with nested commands is probably the reason why Git implements its own wildcard expansion at all.)

Git: Remove files from history which named like a CLI option

3 Answers3