How to permanently erase big files to avoid big repository in GIT?

Question

I have tried some methods introduced in the network, but always failed. Some big files committed by me to a very old branch then the files deleted and new branches were continuously created. Now the checkout directory has grown to about 80 megabytes.

What's the right way to permanently erase those garbage big files?

Answer 1

You probably need to use "git filter-branch" or maybe BFG (http://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/ ) to rewrite history as if the big files had never been committed. But beware of the warnings about rewriting history--for example, any collaborators will have to rebase their branches onto the new history.