How to delete a blob from a Git repo

Question

I accidentally added a database dump (over 1 GB) to my repository, pushed it and noticed this few days later.

I used git filter-branch to delete the file, expired reflog and ran git gc to prune unused objects, but the database dump blob is still in the repository. I used Which commit has this blob?, but I did find any commit which has a reference to the blob. How can I delete this or how do I find out why it didn't get deleted during git gc?

Would stackoverflow.com/questions/2116778/reduce-git-repository-size/… help? or stackoverflow.com/questions/1029969/…? — VonC
– VonC, Commented Aug 26, 2011 at 8:13
Re "did find any commit": Do you mean "didn't find any commit" (the opposite)? — Peter Mortensen
– Peter Mortensen, Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 1:18

dunni · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-26 08:18:28Z

15

Which command did you call exactly when running git gc?

Note the manpage of git gc:

The optional configuration variable gc.pruneExpire controls how old the unreferenced loose objects have to be before they are pruned. The default is "2 weeks ago"

So if your blob is younger than 14 days, you have to call

git gc --prune=<date> (for date you also can insert now)

answered Aug 26, 2011 at 8:18

dunni

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1 Comment

Maciej Lotkowski Over a year ago

Thanks, I didn't notice pruneExpire option and was't aware that git keeps unrefererenced objects for some time. Previously, I did run git gc --prune --aggressive. Now, I did run git reflog --all --expire=now before git gc --prune and it deleted the blob.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-31 01:20:00Z

1

Just do rm .git/objects/path/to/blob.

I am not sure why git-gc didn't delete it.

edited Aug 31, 2021 at 1:20

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 26, 2011 at 8:12

Chaitanya Gupta

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2 Comments

Rob Evans Over a year ago

When downvoting, can everyone please explain why. It helps everyone reading on a subject to learn why something is less desirable or just plain wrong. :)

Peter Mortensen Over a year ago

Why is it safe to delete this internal Git data structure?

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