Change git histories

Git reset

• Mixed reset (default): discard untracked files, but the changed files are preserved but not marked for commit.
• Hard reset: Resets the index and working tree. Any changes to tracked files in the working tree since commit are discarded.
• Soft reset: Does not touch the index file or the working tree at all (but resets the head to commit)

git reset --hard <SHA>   # Reset git history to a specific commit

git reset HEAD~          # Reset state to the previous commit (~)

Removing large binary blobs

Git filter-repo is a filter-branch replacement for rewriting history written in a single-file python script.

To wipe large binary files entirely:

git filter-repo --strip-blobs-bigger-than 100M

Bonus: Remove sensitive content

git filter-repo --use-base-name --path id_dsa --path id_rsa --invert-paths

git filter-repo --replace-text passwords.txt

Purge Git database entirely

Erase all history in the Git repo to start over with all the current files. This also clears big file records in the Git database.

git checkout --orphan newBranch  # Create an orphan branch to hold the files
git add -A  && git commit        # Add all files and commit them
git branch -D main               # Deletes the main branch
git branch -m main               # Rename the current orphan branch to main
git push -f origin main          # Force push main branch to remote (e.g. github)
git gc --aggressive --prune=all  # Remove the old files in the database

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