How to delete files from git bare remote repository?

Question

I have a remote bare git repository.

A new developer cloned it, but he didn't have a properly configured .gitignore file, so he mistakenly pushed some unwanted files into the remote. When I pulled the changes and merged, I got these previously untracked files. Others have also pulled the changes from the remote and have these unwanted files as well.

How do I delete these files from the remote repository, and everyone else's remote/origin/branches?

Answer 1

See github have a FAQ on this: https://help.github.com/articles/remove-sensitive-data Here are the steps:

1. Rewrite the tree from local (working) tree.

   $ git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch Rakefile' \ --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

2. Force push to remote.

   $ git push origin master --force

3. Everybody pull from the remote (and use --force if needed)

To prevent this from happening again, you should check the .gitignore in the repository (and optionally setup a hook on server)