need help stripping a repo to one file

here's what I've done so far (note: this is a public repo if anyone wants to take a look)

git clone git@github.com:xenoterracide/dot_usr.git sql_iabbr cd sql_iabbr/ git checkout db3c5ffb180f10dde8e539a81a6644760e098dcd git branch -D master git checkout -b master git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter vim/ftplugin/ -- --all

that leaves me with this html sgml sh tex vim xhtml xml sql_iabbr.vim xml.vim

all I want left is sql_iabbr.vim and it's history

I've used stuff like git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm -rf xml.vim' HEAD

to remove the files... but I notice that leaves the logs.

I'm thinking I could do that and then remove those commits but I haven't figured out how to remove the commits, and even then I'm not sure the repo would be in the state I want.

can anyone help me get to where I want to be? also is there an easier way to do what I've done so far?

2008/10/19 Caleb Cushing <xenoterracide@gmail.com>:

So you just want the history for a single file?

 git log -p --reverse --pretty=email -- sql_iabbr.vim

That outputs a patch history for sql_iabbr.vim in mbox format, you can import that into an empty repo with git-am.

(I had a look at the project, the history is simple with no merges etc, so nothing like --first-parent is needed)

Cheers, Baz