bfg

Remove unwanted data from Git repository history

TLDR

Remove file from history

$ bfg --delete-files [secrets.txt] [repo.git]

Remove large files

$ bfg --strip-blobs-bigger-than [100M] [repo.git]

Replace text in history

$ bfg --replace-text [passwords.txt] [repo.git]

Delete folders

$ bfg --delete-folders [.svn] [repo.git]

bfg (BFG Repo-Cleaner) is a faster, simpler alternative to git-filter-branch for removing unwanted data from Git repositories. It's designed for cleaning up accidentally committed passwords, large files, or other sensitive data from repository history.The tool is significantly faster than git-filter-branch and easier to use for common cleaning tasks.

PARAMETERS

--delete-files pattern (-D)

Delete files with the specified names (e.g. '*.class', '*.{txt,log}')

--delete-folders name

Delete folders with the specified names (e.g. '.svn', '*-tmp')

--strip-blobs-bigger-than size (-b)

Strip blobs bigger than the given size (e.g. 128K, 1M, 100M)

--strip-biggest-blobs num (-B)

Strip the top NUM biggest blobs

--strip-blobs-with-ids file (-bi)

Strip blobs with the Git object ids listed in the file

--replace-text file (-rt)

Filter file content, replacing matched text (patterns one per line)

--convert-to-git-lfs pattern

Extract files with the specified names (e.g. '*.zip') into Git LFS

--no-blob-protection

Allow the BFG to modify even your latest commit

--private

Treat this rewrite as removing private data (suppresses the public-data hint)

WORKFLOW

$ # Clone a mirror
git clone --mirror https://github.com/user/repo.git

# Run BFG
bfg --delete-files passwords.txt repo.git

# Clean up and push
cd repo.git
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --prune=now --aggressive
git push --force

REPLACE TEXT FORMAT

File with patterns (passwords.txt):

$ PASSWORD1==>***REMOVED***
secret_key==>***REMOVED***

FEATURES

- 10-1000x faster than git-filter-branch- Simple pattern-based deletion- Protects current commit by default- Batch text replacement- Large file cleanup- Folder deletion

INSTALL

yay -S bfg

brew install bfg

CAVEATS

Rewrites history (force push required). Protects HEAD by default (use --no-blob-protection to override). Collaborators must rebase/re-clone. BFG operates on filenames and sizes, not paths: it cannot delete a file only in one directory. For path-specific or otherwise complex rewrites, use git-filter-repo. Requires a Java 11+ runtime (v1.14.0 was the last release to support Java 8).

HISTORY

BFG Repo-Cleaner was created by Roberto Tyley in 2012 to provide a faster, user-friendly alternative to git-filter-branch for repository cleaning.

RESOURCES

Source code · Homepage

bfg