Delete all previous versions of file in git repo

Question

I have a single file in a git repo and it contains sensitive information. I've removed this information in the latest commit. Now I want to delete all previous versions of this file from the git repository. How can this be done?

I believe it can be done with git-filter-branch but I haven't come across an example I can wrap my head around yet.

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '20 at 16:47

12

Quoting the git documentation:

Suppose you want to remove a file (containing confidential information or copyright violation) from all commits:
git filter-branch --tree-filter "rm filename" HEAD
However, if the file is absent from the tree of some commit, a simple rm filename will fail for that tree and commit. Thus you may instead want to use rm -f filename as the script.

So you want to run git filter-branch --tree-filter "rm -f filename" HEAD to erase all history of that file

edited Apr 13 '20 at 16:47

Jöcker

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answered Nov 09 '14 at 18:15

Mauricio Trajano

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That was easy! I just added and committed the latest version of the file after deleting its history from the repository. Thanks. – phelpsw Nov 09 '14 at 20:30
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@phelpsw, make sure to change the password(s) from that file. It is still possible that they were compromised... – ChrisGPT was on strike Nov 09 '14 at 22:30

Delete all previous versions of file in git repo

1 Answers1