--index-filter <command>::
This is the filter for rewriting the index. It is similar to the
tree filter but does not check out the tree, which makes it much
- faster. Frequently used with `git rm \--cached
- \--ignore-unmatch ...`, see EXAMPLES below. For hairy
+ faster. Frequently used with `git rm --cached
+ --ignore-unmatch ...`, see EXAMPLES below. For hairy
cases, see linkgit:git-update-index[1].
--parent-filter <command>::
a simple `rm filename` will fail for that tree and commit.
Thus you may instead want to use `rm -f filename` as the script.
-Using `\--index-filter` with 'git rm' yields a significantly faster
+Using `--index-filter` with 'git rm' yields a significantly faster
version. Like with using `rm filename`, `git rm --cached filename`
will fail if the file is absent from the tree of a commit. If you
want to "completely forget" a file, it does not matter when it entered
-history, so we also add `\--ignore-unmatch`:
+history, so we also add `--ignore-unmatch`:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch filename' HEAD
-------------------------------------------------------
Thus you can, e.g., turn a library subdirectory into a repository of
-its own. Note the `\--` that separates 'filter-branch' options from
-revision options, and the `\--all` to rewrite all branches and tags.
+its own. Note the `--` that separates 'filter-branch' options from
+revision options, and the `--all` to rewrite all branches and tags.
To set a commit (which typically is at the tip of another
history) to be the parent of the current initial commit, in
------------------------------------
git-filter-branch is often used to get rid of a subset of files,
-usually with some combination of `\--index-filter` and
-`\--subdirectory-filter`. People expect the resulting repository to
+usually with some combination of `--index-filter` and
+`--subdirectory-filter`. People expect the resulting repository to
be smaller than the original, but you need a few more steps to
actually make it smaller, because git tries hard not to lose your
objects until you tell it to. First make sure that:
* You really removed all variants of a filename, if a blob was moved
- over its lifetime. `git log \--name-only \--follow \--all \--
- filename` can help you find renames.
+ over its lifetime. `git log --name-only --follow --all -- filename`
+ can help you find renames.
-* You really filtered all refs: use `\--tag-name-filter cat \--
- \--all` when calling git-filter-branch.
+* You really filtered all refs: use `--tag-name-filter cat -- --all`
+ when calling git-filter-branch.
Then there are two ways to get a smaller repository. A safer way is
to clone, that keeps your original intact.
-* Clone it with `git clone +++file:///path/to/repo+++`. The clone
+* Clone it with `git clone file:///path/to/repo`. The clone
will not have the removed objects. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. (Note
that cloning with a plain path just hardlinks everything!)
warned.
* Remove the original refs backed up by git-filter-branch: say `git
- for-each-ref \--format="%(refname)" refs/original/ | xargs -n 1 git
+ for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/original/ | xargs -n 1 git
update-ref -d`.
-* Expire all reflogs with `git reflog expire \--expire=now \--all`.
+* Expire all reflogs with `git reflog expire --expire=now --all`.
-* Garbage collect all unreferenced objects with `git gc \--prune=now`
+* Garbage collect all unreferenced objects with `git gc --prune=now`
(or if your git-gc is not new enough to support arguments to
- `\--prune`, use `git repack -ad; git prune` instead).
+ `--prune`, use `git repack -ad; git prune` instead).
GIT
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