Make the current commit the only (initial) commit in a Git repository?
GitGithubGit CommitGit Problem Overview
I currently have a local Git repository, which I push to a Github repository.
The local repository has ~10 commits, and the Github repository is a synchronised duplicate of this.
What I'd like to do is remove ALL the version history from the local Git repository, so the current contents of the repository appear as the only commit (and therefore older versions of files within the repository are not stored).
I'd then like to push these changes to Github.
I have investigated Git rebase, but this appears to be more suited to removing specific versions. Another potential solution is to delete the local repo, and create a new one - though this would probably create a lot of work!
ETA: There are specific directories / files that are untracked - if possible I would like to maintain the untracking of these files.
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
Here's the brute-force approach. It also removes the configuration of the repository.
Note: This does NOT work if the repository has submodules! If you are using submodules, you should use e.g. [interactive rebase][1]
Step 1: remove all history (Make sure you have backup, this cannot be reverted)
cat .git/config # note <github-uri>
rm -rf .git
Step 2: reconstruct the Git repo with only the current content
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
Step 3: push to GitHub.
git remote add origin <github-uri>
git push -u --force origin main
[1]: https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/rewriting-history/git-rebase-i "interactive rebase"
Solution 2 - Git
The only solution that works for me (and keeps submodules working) is
git checkout --orphan newBranch
git add -A # Add all files and commit them
git commit
git branch -D master # Deletes the master branch
git branch -m master # Rename the current branch to master
git push -f origin master # Force push master branch to github
git gc --aggressive --prune=all # remove the old files
Deleting .git/
always causes huge issues when I have submodules.
Using git rebase --root
would somehow cause conflicts for me (and take long since I had a lot of history).
Solution 3 - Git
This is my favoured approach:
git branch new_branch_name $(echo "commit message" | git commit-tree HEAD^{tree})
This will create a new branch with one commit that adds everything in HEAD. It doesn't alter anything else, so it's completely safe.
Solution 4 - Git
The other option, which could turn out to be a lot of work if you have a lot of commits, is an interactive rebase (assuming your git version is >=1.7.12):git rebase --root -i
When presented with a list of commits in your editor:
- Change "pick" to "reword" for the first commit
- Change "pick" to "fixup" every other commit
Save and close. Git will start rebasing.
At the end you would have a new root commit that is a combination of all the ones that came after it.
The advantage is that you don't have to delete your repository and if you have second thoughts you always have a fallback.
If you really do want to nuke your history, reset master to this commit and delete all other branches.
Solution 5 - Git
Variant of larsmans's proposed method:
Save your untrackfiles list:
git ls-files --others --exclude-standard > /tmp/my_untracked_files
Save your git configuration:
mv .git/config /tmp/
Then perform larsmans's first steps:
rm -rf .git
git init
git add .
Restore your config:
mv /tmp/config .git/
Untrack you untracked files:
cat /tmp/my_untracked_files | xargs -0 git rm --cached
Then commit:
git commit -m "Initial commit"
And finally push to your repository:
git push -u --force origin master
Solution 6 - Git
Deleting the .git
folder may cause problems in your git repository. If you want to delete all your commit history but keep the code in its current state, it is very safe to do it as in the following:
-
Checkout
git checkout --orphan latest_branch
-
Add all the files
git add -A
-
Commit the changes
git commit -am "commit message"
-
Delete the branch
git branch -D master
-
Rename the current branch to master
git branch -m master
-
Finally, force update your repository
git push -f origin master
PS: this will not keep your old commit history around
Solution 7 - Git
Below is a script adapted from @Zeelot 's answer. It should remove the history from all branches, not just the master branch:
for BR in $(git branch); do
git checkout $BR
git checkout --orphan ${BR}_temp
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git branch -D $BR
git branch -m $BR
done;
git gc --aggressive --prune=all
It worked for my purposes (I am not using submodules).
Solution 8 - Git
You could use shallow clones (git > 1.9):
git clone --depth depth remote-url
Further reading: http://blogs.atlassian.com/2014/05/handle-big-repositories-git/
Solution 9 - Git
git filter-branch
is the major-surgery tool.
git filter-branch --parent-filter true -- @^!
--parent-filter
gets the parents on stdin and should print the rewritten parents on stdout; unix true
exits successfully and prints nothing, so: no parents. @^!
is Git shorthand for "the head commit but not any of its parents". Then delete all the other refs and push at leisure.
Solution 10 - Git
> What I'd like to do is remove ALL the version history from the local Git repository, so the current contents of the repository appear as the only commit (and therefore older versions of files within the repository are not stored).
A more conceptual answer:
git automatically garbage collects old commits if no tags/branches/refs point to them. So you simply have to remove all tags/branches and create a new orphan commit, associated with any branch - by convention you would let the branch master
point to that commit.
The old, unreachable commits will then never again be seen by anyone unless they go digging with low-level git commands. If that is enough for you, I would just stop there and let the automatic GC do it's job whenever it wishes to. If you want to get rid of them right away, you can use git gc
(possibly with --aggressive --prune=all
). For the remote git repository, there's no way for you to force that though, unless you have shell access to their file system.
Solution 11 - Git
Just delete the Github repo and create a new one. By far the fastest, easiest and safest approach. After all, what do you have to gain carrying out all those commands in the accepted solution when all you want is the master branch with a single commit?
Solution 12 - Git
The method below is exactly reproducible, so there's no need to run clone again if both sides were consistent, just run the script on the other side too.
git log -n1 --format=%H >.git/info/grafts
git filter-branch -f
rm .git/info/grafts
If you then want to clean it up, try this script:
http://sam.nipl.net/b/git-gc-all-ferocious
I wrote a script which "kills history" for each branch in the repository:
http://sam.nipl.net/b/git-kill-history
see also: http://sam.nipl.net/b/confirm
Solution 13 - Git
This deletes the history on the master
branch (you might want to make a backup before running the commands):
git branch tmp_branch $(echo "commit message" | git commit-tree HEAD^{tree})
git checkout tmp_branch
git branch -D master
git branch -m master
git push -f --set-upstream origin master
This is based on the answer from @dan_waterworth.
Solution 14 - Git
Here are the steps to clear out the history of a Github repository
First, remove the history from .git
rm -rf .git
Now, recreate the git repos from the current content only
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
Push to the Github remote repos ensuring you overwrite history
git remote add origin git@github.com:<YOUR ACCOUNT>/<YOUR REPOS>.git
git push -u --force origin master
Solution 15 - Git
Here you go:
#!/bin/bash
#
# By Zibri (2019)
#
# Usage: gitclean username password giturl
#
gitclean ()
{
odir=$PWD;
if [ "$#" -ne 3 ]; then
echo "Usage: gitclean username password giturl";
return 1;
fi;
temp=$(mktemp -d 2>/dev/null /dev/shm/git.XXX || mktemp -d 2>/dev/null /tmp/git.XXX);
cd "$temp";
url=$(echo "$3" |sed -e "s/[^/]*\/\/\([^@]*@\)\?\.*/\1/");
git clone "https://$1:$2@$url" && {
cd *;
for BR in "$(git branch|tr " " "\n"|grep -v '*')";
do
echo working on branch $BR;
git checkout $BR;
git checkout --orphan $(basename "$temp"|tr -d .);
git add -A;
git commit -m "Initial Commit" && {
git branch -D $BR;
git branch -m $BR;
git push -f origin $BR;
git gc --aggressive --prune=all
};
done
};
cd $odir;
rm -rf "$temp"
}
Also hosted here: https://gist.github.com/Zibri/76614988478a076bbe105545a16ee743
Solution 16 - Git
I solved a similar issue by just deleting the .git
folder from my project and reintegrating with version control through IntelliJ.
Note: The .git
folder is hidden. You can view it in the terminal with ls -a
, and then remove it using rm -rf .git
.
Solution 17 - Git
For that use Shallow Clone command git clone --depth 1 URL - It will clones only the current HEAD of the repository
Solution 18 - Git
> To remove the last commit from git, you can simply run
git reset --hard HEAD^
> If you are removing multiple commits from the top, you can run
git reset --hard HEAD~2
> > to remove the last two commits. You > can increase the number to remove even more commits.
Git tutoturial here provides help on how to purge repository:
> you want to remove the file from history and add it to the .gitignore > to ensure it is not accidentally re-committed. For our examples, we're > going to remove Rakefile from the GitHub gem repository.
git clone https://github.com/defunkt/github-gem.git
cd github-gem
git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch Rakefile' \
--prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
> Now that we've erased the file from history, let's ensure that we > don't accidentally commit it again.
echo "Rakefile" >> .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "Add Rakefile to .gitignore"
> If you're happy with the state of the repository, you need to > force-push the changes to overwrite the remote repository.
git push origin master --force