Re: Problems getting rid of large files using git-filter-branch

From: Nicolas Pitre <nico@cam.org>
Date: Jan 7, 2009, 15:02 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.00.0901070955500.26118@xanadu.home>
In-Reply-To: <c09652430901070026m6ca0ec98ndc7483aac8dfde89@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, 7 Jan 2009, Øyvind Harboe wrote:

Show 31 quoted lines

> Here is a summary of the solution I used. I'm a beginner in git
> and just summarizing what others told me and what I did. Use at
> your own risk!
> 
> 1. Remove anything you know should be removed, e.g.:
> 
> git filter-branch --tree-filter 'find . -regex ".*toolchain\..*" -exec
> rm -f {} \;' HEAD
> 
> 2. Expire the log:
> 
> git reflog expire --all
> 
> 3. Delete stuff from .git that should be manually "verified" to be
> correct. I don't actually
> know how to "verify" that at this point... Use backups Luke!
> 
> rm -rf .git/refs/original
> # delete lines w/"refs/original" from .git/packed-refs
> vi .git/packed-refs
> # for good measure...
> git reflog expire --all
> git gc
> 
> 4. Your repository is still huge. By creating a new repository and pulling from
> this one, the garbage will stay in the old one...
> 
> mkdir newrep
> cd newrep
> git init
> git pull file:///oldrep

I'd suggest you skip 2 and 3, and do 4 only. Using 4 makes 2 unnecessary, and is far safer than 3. Manually deleting stuff in .git is fine only if you really know what you're doing and have some acquaintance with the git internals.

Show 27 quoted lines

> 5. Check size of .git. If it is still too big, try figuring out which
> files that are big by looking at the packs(.git/objects/pack/xxx):
> 
> $ git verify-pack -v $PACK | grep -v "^chain " | sort -n -k 4
> 
> and then for the last few lines do a
> 
> $ git rev-list --all --objects | grep $SHA1
> 
> 6. Go back to #1 until done.
> 
> Your repository should now be of reasonable size...
> 
> I've found some great scripts for converting from svn/cvs, but really
> the above procedure
> is necessary to run when converting nasty old repositories...
> 
> -- 
> Øyvind Harboe
> http://www.zylin.com/zy1000.html
> ARM7 ARM9 XScale Cortex
> JTAG debugger and flash programmer
> --
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