How to remove private keys on push to a public git repo?

[Brett Best]

I would like to push my repo to a public host but it contains private keys.

How can I remove these before pushing? Can SourceTree do this automatically? I.e. find and replace text on push?

[Seth · Accepted solution]

I don't think Git/Hg or SourceTree provide a way to do this. The entire point of pushing and pulling is to keep repositories synchronized.

At this point, even deleting the private keys from your repo will be insufficient If you're pushing the entire repo, others will be able to look through the repository history to find them.

There is probably a complex Git/Hg command that can iterate through your history and delete all instances of a file, but you'd get more help with that in a larger forum, like StackOverflow or a Git/Hg mailing list.

[Brett Best]

Okay what about on committing or do you have another way of handling private keys with a public repo?

[Seth]

I think most people would recommend to keep private keys outside the repo. You might consider a separate, private repo where you can store keys and any other non-public documentation.

[Brett Best]

Thanks Seth!