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If a user accidentally commits a file, let's say a file with database passwords, how do you permanently remove all instances of that file from a git repository? It still needs to live on developers machines but not in the git repository.

Sean
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  • possible duplicate of [Removing a file from Git source control but not from the source](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/936249/removing-a-file-from-git-source-control-but-not-from-the-source) – ChrisGPT was on strike Jan 24 '14 at 01:45

3 Answers3

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You have to rewrite all commits containing that file. git filter-branch will help you with that.

From git help filter-branch:

EXAMPLES
   Suppose you want to remove a file (containing confidential information or copyright
   violation) from all commits:

       git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm filename' HEAD

   Using --index-filter with git rm yields a significantly faster version.

       git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch filename' HEAD

Of course, if you already published your commits and other people cloned it, they still have the file in their repository and might even reintroduce it if they are allowed to push to your repository.

michas
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Github has an article that explains the process with Git.

kenorb
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Miguel Nieva
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Try with: 

$ bfg --delete-files id_{dsa,rsa} my-repo.git

Source: BFG Repo-Cleaner site

kenorb
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ThangNguyen
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  • Specifying `my-repo.git` is not necessary, just use the filename/glob and run the command in your repo root. – kenorb Aug 10 '15 at 10:42