Reducing GIT repository size in STASH

Question

I have a git repository that was converted from a subversion repository that had lots of binaries checked in. I thought I had gotten all of them before doing the initial push to stash but it turns out I was wrong.

I have followed the guide here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/BITBUCKET/Maintaining+a+Git+Repositoryto remove the binary files which lowered the repository size from ~2.7gb to ~340mb. I then force pushed the repository up to stash.

However, when I do an initial clone from stash, it still downloads ~2.5gb of files. Once the clone is finished, I can then run "git gc --prune=now" to get the filesize back to ~340mb. This leads me to believe there are some references to the large files which need to be removed on the server, which do not come with a "git clone". My initial thought is it could be related to our merged pull requests.

I did also try manually running the "git gc --prune=now"  on the server, but this did not seem have any affect.

John Reynolds_bd66r2 · Answer

John, when I converted from SVN we had stored lots of binaries as well. I used this really great free tool to help purge my binaries before I converted the SVN repo. It may not be too late for you to use?

BFG Repo Cleaner

Balázs Szakmáry · Answer

git gc --aggressive on the server should help, if it completes without running out of RAM.

John Hoare · Answer

Since we don't care to much about our pull request history, I just created a new repository with the same name as the old one, and pushed the smaller repo up to it instead.