Re: How to delete files and directories from git commit history?

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 12, 2018, 20:36 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqk1r391z5.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <20180612154413.3df64441@mydesk.domain.cxm>

Steve Litt <slitt@troubleshooters.com> writes:

Show 11 quoted lines

> But then I view all filenames from that directory that have ever been
> in the project, as follows:
>
> git cat-file --buffer --batch-all-objects \
>  --batch-check='%(objecttype) %(objectname)' \
>  | grep ^c | cut -d " "  -f 2 \
>  | xargs -n 1 git ls-tree -r | sort | uniq \
>  | grep propdir
>
> The preceding command lists directory docs/propdir and all the files
> it's ever contained....

In which repository did you run this? As cat-file's documentation clearly states, --batch-all-objects does not *care* about the reachability, so even after rewriting the history using filter-branch, as long as you have the original objects before your history rewrite in the repository, it _will_ see those trees with propdir, even if they are now unreachable thanks to your filter-branch. If you are doing the above in the original (or in a local clone), try running "git repack -a -d && git prune --expire=now" after filter-branch.