git remove files from repository history code example

Example 1: remove file history from git

git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch path_to_file" HEAD

Example 2: how to remove one file from git history

The BFG Repo-Cleaner is a faster, simpler alternative to git filter-branch for removing unwanted data. For example, to remove your file with sensitive data and leave your latest commit untouched), run:
bfg --replace-text passwords.txt