[git] Remove large .pack file created by git

Run the following command, replacing PATH-TO-YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA with the path to the file you want to remove, not just its filename. These arguments will:

  1. Force Git to process, but not check out, the entire history of every branch and tag
  2. Remove the specified file, as well as any empty commits generated as a result
  3. Overwrite your existing tags
git filter-branch --force --index-filter "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch PATH-TO-YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA" --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

This will forcefully remove all references to the files from the active history of the repo.

Next step, to perform a GC cycle to force all references to the file to be expired and purged from the pack file. Nothing needs to be replaced in these commands.

git update-ref -d refs/original/refs/remotes/origin/master
git for-each-ref --format='delete %(refname)' refs/original | git update-ref --stdin
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --aggressive --prune=now