.. _5b82903749720abe568ee7effb54c17d:

Removing large files from git history
=====================================

.. note:: The original gist can be found at: `https://gist.github.com/5b82903749720abe568ee7effb54c17d <https://gist.github.com/5b82903749720abe568ee7effb54c17d>`_

vplanet_bfg.md
--------------

Cleaning the vplanet repo
=========================

Most of what we need to know is
`here <https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/>`__. First we
`download
BFG <http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/madgag/bfg/1.13.0/bfg-1.13.0.jar>`__
and create the alias

::

   alias bfg='java -jar bfg-1.13.0.jar'

Note that we need the latest version of the `Java Runtime
Environment <http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre10-downloads-4417026.html>`__
installed.

Let’s create a mirror (bare clone) of the bitbucket repo:

::

   git clone --mirror https://bitbucket.org/bitbucket_vpl/vplanet.git

This might take a while! Our repo is pretty big. When that’s done,
``cd`` into ``vplanet.git``. I found that I had to run

::

   git gc

before doing anything else to force git to re-index the repo. Now we can
run the commands described in the examples
`here <https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/>`__. For instance, to
remove all files larger than 100 MB from the history, ``cd`` out of the
repository and run

::

   bfg --strip-blobs-bigger-than 100M vplanet.git

All this did was to flag the offending files – nothing was deleted. You
can check the logs to ensure that nothing bad happened. Once you’re
happy, run

::

   cd vplanet.git
   $ git reflog expire --expire=now --all && git gc --prune=now --aggressive

and then, the super dangerous and final step,

::

   git push