Remove sensitive files from commit history

Question

Back when I was first starting with Git, I pushed my config.php file and some unneeded cache files into the repo. I have seen that it is possible to use filter branch to remove unwanted files from history. So say I had these files I wanted to remove:

- config.php

- forums/cache/*.php

there is more, but I can figure it out when someone tells me how to do those. I am using BitBucket with SourceTree.

Seth · Answer

That's what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation.

Paolo Furini · Answer

No..

Aafrin refers to the standard way to configure ignore patterns in a Git repository.

.gitignore files must be in place before you git add files. After committing, the changes will be recorded permanently in the repo, and the only way to delete them is "rewriting"history.

The approach outlined in my answer is one of the simplest, but keep in my mind that you should avoid it, unless you have strong reasons to do so (the only one I think of is when you commit really sensitive data, like passwords and keys).

When you want to remove unharmful unwanted files (like logs, executables, etc.), the best option is to do a commit that "reverts" changes. To do so, you simply delete unwanted files in your local repo, then stage the deletion and commit it the usual way.

Seth · Answer

Will this will work on files that are already versioned?