From: Christof Krüger <git@christof-krueger.de>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:04:59 GMT
Subject: Re: removing files from history but not filesystem
Message-ID: <218bf1d3b2bf197a5f56d542c6a91960.squirrel@mail.localhost.li>
In-Reply-To: <CFCCFA00-B4BF-4A88-88A5-2F588630F7BB@uab.edu>

Hi,

> $ git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch
> */one.txt' HEAD

The following should work:

git branch temp
git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch foo' temp
git reset temp

This creates branch "temp" pointing to the same commit as "master".
Then you filter-branch the "temp" branch. This leaves file "foo" in your
working directory intact, as your current branch is actually "master". The
third step resets your current "branch" to the commit pointed by the
rewritten branch "temp". The default for git reset is --mixed which
according to the man page leaves the working tree alone.

Regards,
  Chris