summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt
blob: 237f85e7673e90b214550e051d92c4cb0865413a (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
git-filter-branch(1)
====================

NAME
----
git-filter-branch - Rewrite branches

SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git filter-branch' [--env-filter <command>] [--tree-filter <command>]
	[--index-filter <command>] [--parent-filter <command>]
	[--msg-filter <command>] [--commit-filter <command>]
	[--tag-name-filter <command>] [--subdirectory-filter <directory>]
	[--original <namespace>] [-d <directory>] [-f | --force]
	[--] [<rev-list options>...]

DESCRIPTION
-----------
Lets you rewrite git revision history by rewriting the branches mentioned
in the <rev-list options>, applying custom filters on each revision.
Those filters can modify each tree (e.g. removing a file or running
a perl rewrite on all files) or information about each commit.
Otherwise, all information (including original commit times or merge
information) will be preserved.

The command will only rewrite the _positive_ refs mentioned in the
command line (e.g. if you pass 'a..b', only 'b' will be rewritten).
If you specify no filters, the commits will be recommitted without any
changes, which would normally have no effect.  Nevertheless, this may be
useful in the future for compensating for some git bugs or such,
therefore such a usage is permitted.

*WARNING*! The rewritten history will have different object names for all
the objects and will not converge with the original branch.  You will not
be able to easily push and distribute the rewritten branch on top of the
original branch.  Please do not use this command if you do not know the
full implications, and avoid using it anyway, if a simple single commit
would suffice to fix your problem.  (See the "RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM
REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for further information about
rewriting published history.)

Always verify that the rewritten version is correct: The original refs,
if different from the rewritten ones, will be stored in the namespace
'refs/original/'.

Note that since this operation is very I/O expensive, it might
be a good idea to redirect the temporary directory off-disk with the
'-d' option, e.g. on tmpfs.  Reportedly the speedup is very noticeable.


Filters
~~~~~~~

The filters are applied in the order as listed below.  The <command>
argument is always evaluated in the shell context using the 'eval' command
(with the notable exception of the commit filter, for technical reasons).
Prior to that, the $GIT_COMMIT environment variable will be set to contain
the id of the commit being rewritten.  Also, GIT_AUTHOR_NAME,
GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_NAME, GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL,
and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE are set according to the current commit.  The values
of these variables after the filters have run, are used for the new commit.
If any evaluation of <command> returns a non-zero exit status, the whole
operation will be aborted.

A 'map' function is available that takes an "original sha1 id" argument
and outputs a "rewritten sha1 id" if the commit has been already
rewritten, and "original sha1 id" otherwise; the 'map' function can
return several ids on separate lines if your commit filter emitted
multiple commits.


OPTIONS
-------

--env-filter <command>::
	This filter may be used if you only need to modify the environment
	in which the commit will be performed.  Specifically, you might
	want to rewrite the author/committer name/email/time environment
	variables (see linkgit:git-commit[1] for details).  Do not forget
	to re-export the variables.

--tree-filter <command>::
	This is the filter for rewriting the tree and its contents.
	The argument is evaluated in shell with the working
	directory set to the root of the checked out tree.  The new tree
	is then used as-is (new files are auto-added, disappeared files
	are auto-removed - neither .gitignore files nor any other ignore
	rules *HAVE ANY EFFECT*!).

--index-filter <command>::
	This is the filter for rewriting the index.  It is similar to the
	tree filter but does not check out the tree, which makes it much
	faster.  Frequently used with `git rm \--cached
	\--ignore-unmatch ...`, see EXAMPLES below.  For hairy
	cases, see linkgit:git-update-index[1].

--parent-filter <command>::
	This is the filter for rewriting the commit's parent list.
	It will receive the parent string on stdin and shall output
	the new parent string on stdout.  The parent string is in
	the format described in linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]: empty for
	the initial commit, "-p parent" for a normal commit and
	"-p parent1 -p parent2 -p parent3 ..." for a merge commit.

--msg-filter <command>::
	This is the filter for rewriting the commit messages.
	The argument is evaluated in the shell with the original
	commit message on standard input; its standard output is
	used as the new commit message.

--commit-filter <command>::
	This is the filter for performing the commit.
	If this filter is specified, it will be called instead of the
	'git-commit-tree' command, with arguments of the form
	"<TREE_ID> [-p <PARENT_COMMIT_ID>]..." and the log message on
	stdin.  The commit id is expected on stdout.
+
As a special extension, the commit filter may emit multiple
commit ids; in that case, the rewritten children of the original commit will
have all of them as parents.
+
You can use the 'map' convenience function in this filter, and other
convenience functions, too.  For example, calling 'skip_commit "$@"'
will leave out the current commit (but not its changes! If you want
that, use 'git-rebase' instead).
+
You can also use the 'git_commit_non_empty_tree "$@"' instead of
'git commit-tree "$@"' if you don't wish to keep commits with a single parent
and that makes no change to the tree.

--tag-name-filter <command>::
	This is the filter for rewriting tag names. When passed,
	it will be called for every tag ref that points to a rewritten
	object (or to a tag object which points to a rewritten object).
	The original tag name is passed via standard input, and the new
	tag name is expected on standard output.
+
The original tags are not deleted, but can be overwritten;
use "--tag-name-filter cat" to simply update the tags.  In this
case, be very careful and make sure you have the old tags
backed up in case the conversion has run afoul.
+
Nearly proper rewriting of tag objects is supported. If the tag has
a message attached, a new tag object will be created with the same message,
author, and timestamp. If the tag has a signature attached, the
signature will be stripped. It is by definition impossible to preserve
signatures. The reason this is "nearly" proper, is because ideally if
the tag did not change (points to the same object, has the same name, etc.)
it should retain any signature. That is not the case, signatures will always
be removed, buyer beware. There is also no support for changing the
author or timestamp (or the tag message for that matter). Tags which point
to other tags will be rewritten to point to the underlying commit.

--subdirectory-filter <directory>::
	Only look at the history which touches the given subdirectory.
	The result will contain that directory (and only that) as its
	project root.

--prune-empty::
	Some kind of filters will generate empty commits, that left the tree
	untouched.  This switch allow git-filter-branch to ignore such
	commits.  Though, this switch only applies for commits that have one
	and only one parent, it will hence keep merges points. Also, this
	option is not compatible with the use of '--commit-filter'. Though you
	just need to use the function 'git_commit_non_empty_tree "$@"' instead
	of the 'git commit-tree "$@"' idiom in your commit filter to make that
	happen.

--original <namespace>::
	Use this option to set the namespace where the original commits
	will be stored. The default value is 'refs/original'.

-d <directory>::
	Use this option to set the path to the temporary directory used for
	rewriting.  When applying a tree filter, the command needs to
	temporarily check out the tree to some directory, which may consume
	considerable space in case of large projects.  By default it
	does this in the '.git-rewrite/' directory but you can override
	that choice by this parameter.

-f::
--force::
	'git-filter-branch' refuses to start with an existing temporary
	directory or when there are already refs starting with
	'refs/original/', unless forced.

<rev-list options>...::
	Arguments for 'git-rev-list'.  All positive refs included by
	these options are rewritten.  You may also specify options
	such as '--all', but you must use '--' to separate them from
	the 'git-filter-branch' options.


Examples
--------

Suppose you want to remove a file (containing confidential information
or copyright violation) from all commits:

-------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm filename' HEAD
-------------------------------------------------------

However, if the file is absent from the tree of some commit,
a simple `rm filename` will fail for that tree and commit.
Thus you may instead want to use `rm -f filename` as the script.

Using `\--index-filter` with 'git-rm' yields a significantly faster
version.  Like with using `rm filename`, `git rm --cached filename`
will fail if the file is absent from the tree of a commit.  If you
want to "completely forget" a file, it does not matter when it entered
history, so we also add `\--ignore-unmatch`:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch filename' HEAD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, you will get the rewritten history saved in HEAD.

To rewrite the repository to look as if `foodir/` had been its project
root, and discard all other history:

-------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter foodir -- --all
-------------------------------------------------------

Thus you can, e.g., turn a library subdirectory into a repository of
its own.  Note the `\--` that separates 'filter-branch' options from
revision options, and the `\--all` to rewrite all branches and tags.

To set a commit (which typically is at the tip of another
history) to be the parent of the current initial commit, in
order to paste the other history behind the current history:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --parent-filter 'sed "s/^\$/-p <graft-id>/"' HEAD
-------------------------------------------------------------------

(if the parent string is empty - which happens when we are dealing with
the initial commit - add graftcommit as a parent).  Note that this assumes
history with a single root (that is, no merge without common ancestors
happened).  If this is not the case, use:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --parent-filter \
	'test $GIT_COMMIT = <commit-id> && echo "-p <graft-id>" || cat' HEAD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

or even simpler:

-----------------------------------------------
echo "$commit-id $graft-id" >> .git/info/grafts
git filter-branch $graft-id..HEAD
-----------------------------------------------

To remove commits authored by "Darl McBribe" from the history:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --commit-filter '
	if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME" = "Darl McBribe" ];
	then
		skip_commit "$@";
	else
		git commit-tree "$@";
	fi' HEAD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The function 'skip_commit' is defined as follows:

--------------------------
skip_commit()
{
	shift;
	while [ -n "$1" ];
	do
		shift;
		map "$1";
		shift;
	done;
}
--------------------------

The shift magic first throws away the tree id and then the -p
parameters.  Note that this handles merges properly! In case Darl
committed a merge between P1 and P2, it will be propagated properly
and all children of the merge will become merge commits with P1,P2
as their parents instead of the merge commit.

You can rewrite the commit log messages using `--msg-filter`.  For
example, 'git-svn-id' strings in a repository created by 'git-svn' can
be removed this way:

-------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --msg-filter '
	sed -e "/^git-svn-id:/d"
'
-------------------------------------------------------

To restrict rewriting to only part of the history, specify a revision
range in addition to the new branch name.  The new branch name will
point to the top-most revision that a 'git-rev-list' of this range
will print.

*NOTE* the changes introduced by the commits, and which are not reverted
by subsequent commits, will still be in the rewritten branch. If you want
to throw out _changes_ together with the commits, you should use the
interactive mode of 'git-rebase'.


Consider this history:

------------------
     D--E--F--G--H
    /     /
A--B-----C
------------------

To rewrite only commits D,E,F,G,H, but leave A, B and C alone, use:

--------------------------------
git filter-branch ... C..H
--------------------------------

To rewrite commits E,F,G,H, use one of these:

----------------------------------------
git filter-branch ... C..H --not D
git filter-branch ... D..H --not C
----------------------------------------

To move the whole tree into a subdirectory, or remove it from there:

---------------------------------------------------------------
git filter-branch --index-filter \
	'git ls-files -s | sed "s-\t-&newsubdir/-" |
		GIT_INDEX_FILE=$GIT_INDEX_FILE.new \
			git update-index --index-info &&
	 mv $GIT_INDEX_FILE.new $GIT_INDEX_FILE' HEAD
---------------------------------------------------------------



Checklist for Shrinking a Repository
------------------------------------

git-filter-branch is often used to get rid of a subset of files,
usually with some combination of `\--index-filter` and
`\--subdirectory-filter`.  People expect the resulting repository to
be smaller than the original, but you need a few more steps to
actually make it smaller, because git tries hard not to lose your
objects until you tell it to.  First make sure that:

* You really removed all variants of a filename, if a blob was moved
  over its lifetime.  `git log \--name-only \--follow \--all \--
  filename` can help you find renames.

* You really filtered all refs: use `\--tag-name-filter cat \--
  \--all` when calling git-filter-branch.

Then there are two ways to get a smaller repository.  A safer way is
to clone, that keeps your original intact.

* Clone it with `git clone +++file:///path/to/repo+++`.  The clone
  will not have the removed objects.  See linkgit:git-clone[1].  (Note
  that cloning with a plain path just hardlinks everything!)

If you really don't want to clone it, for whatever reasons, check the
following points instead (in this order).  This is a very destructive
approach, so *make a backup* or go back to cloning it.  You have been
warned.

* Remove the original refs backed up by git-filter-branch: say `git
  for-each-ref \--format="%(refname)" refs/original/ | xargs -n 1 git
  update-ref -d`.

* Expire all reflogs with `git reflog expire \--expire=now \--all`.

* Garbage collect all unreferenced objects with `git gc \--prune=now`
  (or if your git-gc is not new enough to support arguments to
  `\--prune`, use `git repack -ad; git prune` instead).


Author
------
Written by Petr "Pasky" Baudis <pasky@suse.cz>,
and the git list <git@vger.kernel.org>

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Petr Baudis and the git list.

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite