git: can't find blob - want to get rid of it from pack

Question

I've a large blob that I want to get rid of! I thought I removed the file using this solution: http://dound.com/2009/04/git-forever-remove-files-or-folders-from-history/ (I've used -- --all instead of HEAD so that files are removed from all branches)

rm -rf .git/refs/original/ && git reflog expire --all &&  
    git gc --aggressive --prune

I've looked in the pack folder via this Why is my git repository so big?

$ git verify-pack -v .git/objects/pack/pack-*.idx | sort -k3n
... last 4 lines:
bc7ae9801052180b283cd81880753549f0f92587 blob   19464809 749446 305054873
acd5f09a35846bec25ebc324738139e5caabc50f blob   294278199 71381636 39607483
986d152935434b56cf182d8a32e24cb57af75ac3 blob   480385718 108184804 110989119
ba9d1d27ee64154146b37dfaf42ededecea847e1 blob   761172819 27430741 277589990

The script git-find-blob is taken from Which commit has this blob?

$ ./git-find-blob ba9d1d27ee64154146b37dfaf42ededecea847e1

But it doesn't find anything.

Any ideas how to get rid of it from my repository?

Answer 1

You can use git repack -Ad to force git to reconstruct your packs, and to unpack any unreachable objects into loose objects. At this point you can use git gc --prune=now to discard the unreachable objects.

You should also double-check that you actually expired your reflogs. I believe git reflog expire --all will default to 90 days (or 30 for unreachable objects), so you may want to use git reflog expire --expire-unreachable=now --all instead (this needs to be done before the repack+gc).