How to squash range of old git commits?

Question

I have started a project as a fork of a CMS/framework that's intended to fork when you build on top of it. Lets say it has 500 commits and I don't want to keep that history for my project.

Ideally I want to squash the first 499 commits, keep the 500th as a pivot if I decide to cherry pick a range of patches after that. I have my commits on top of it but still pull patches occasionally.

My ~50 commits are already on top of the first 500 in my fork.

Would that be possible? How would I squash the first commits? I'd also consider other option, if there is better way to achieve what I hope for.

I strongly suggest that you *don't* nuke the history. Chances are *someone* will need it later, even if you can't imagine it yet. — o11c, Jun 24 '15 at 07:41

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:22

0

You can keep your fork as is, but also report your 50 commits on top of a new Git repo.

That new repo would be a clone of the original repo, in which you delete the .git (after cloning), and make a new git repo in it (git init .; git add -A .; git commit -m "one big commit")

Then you can start importing the 50 commits from your first repo to this new one: see "git: Apply changes introduced by commit in one repo to another repo".
I would use git format-patch as in this answer.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:22

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answered Jun 24 '15 at 07:19

VonC

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Thanks, that was the answer I was hoping for! – ddinchev Jun 24 '15 at 07:48

How to squash range of old git commits?

1 Answers1