How to delete folder from git history permanently using BFG

Question

I am using BFG to delete two of my folders. They were tracked from the inception of the repo. The reason to delete was those folder contains binary and other txt file that we no longer need. But When I try to delete those two folder, one gets deleted but the other one still ligers around.

I created my dummy repo and did some commits to recreate the problem. I assume myRepo.git is clean repo to begin with.

Function I used to delete folders is : java -jar bfg-1.13.0.jar --no-blob-protection --delete-folders "{system1, system2}" myRepo.git

#!/bin/bash BUILD(){ git clone https://github.com/xxxx/myRepo.git cd myRepo echo "Jpt test1" > jpt1.txt echo "Jpt test2" > jpt2.txt echo "Jpt test3" > jpt3.txt git add jpt1.txt jpt2.txt jpt3.txt git commit -m "first commit" git push origin master ###### mkdir system1 cd system1 mkfile 14m outputfile1.out mkfile 14m outputfile2.out echo "Jpt test1" > sysjpt1.txt echo "Jpt test2" > sysjpt2.txt echo "Jpt test3" > sysjpt3.txt cd .. ###### mkdir system2 cd system2 mkfile 14m outputfile1.out mkfile 14m outputfile2.out cd .. git add system1 system2 git commit -m "tracking large file" git push origin master cd .. ##### Call function BFG which does BFG stuff. BFG } BFG(){ # run bfg and let git clean history git clone --mirror https://github.com/xxxx/myRepo.git java -jar bfg-1.13.0.jar --no-blob-protection --delete-folders "{system1, system2}" myRepo.git cd myRepo.git git reflog expire --expire=now --all && git gc --prune=now --aggressive git push cd .. mkdir test_new cd test_new git clone https://github.com/xxx/myRepo.git cd myRepo ls } BUILD

When I clone after cleaning and do ls on it. I get jpt1.txt jpt2.txt jpt3.txt system2. See how system2 folder is still there.

Just to clarify, system2 is still there, but are the files also still in it? Also, I don't like "{system1, system2}". By putting quotes around that, you're passing that string as is to bfg, rather than have the shell expand it. The space after the comma also seems like a bad idea. Have you tried running it in two commands instead, one per folder? — joanis
– joanis, Commented May 27, 2019 at 18:31
Yes the other files are also there. I will try ur suggestion and let you know. — mato
– mato, Commented May 27, 2019 at 23:29
@joanis So I tried like how you said, by doing them separately and it worked. The problem probably is in "{system1, system2}" part of the script, like you said. — mato
– mato, Commented May 28, 2019 at 0:31
After playing more with the the command java -jar bfg-1.13.0.jar --no-blob-protection --delete-folders "{system1, system2}" myRepo.git and re-reading your comment The space after the comma also seems like a bad idea.. I tried without space and it seems to work. So I can confirm that the space was the problem. So the final command I ran was java -jar bfg-1.13.0.jar --no-blob-protection --delete-folders "{system1,system2}" myRepo.git See how there is now space `"{system1,system2}". — mato
– mato, Commented May 28, 2019 at 15:15
OK, thanks for letting me know. I'll write it up as an answer then. — joanis
– joanis, Commented May 28, 2019 at 19:49

joanis · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-28 20:07:21Z

As you tested from my suggestions in the comments above, the problem is with the space in "{system1, system2}". When that expression is processed, it expands it to "system1" and " system2", with a space in front of system2, which is not what you want.

You can run the process in two commands, once with system1 and once with system2, or simply remove the space, and things will work.

Interestingly, the expansion of {a,b} appears to be done by bfg itself, not by bash: the quotes tell bash to pass that string literally, so although this looks like bash syntax it actually isn't a bash expansion.

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