Git - exclude file

Question

Hello everybody. 2 weeks ago i commited config of my application. It is not very useful. How I can exclude the file from changings history?

Answer 1

use ignore.
http://github.com/guides/ignore-for-git

Answer 2

Add the file name to a .gitignore file.

Link

Answer 3

You can

git rm myConfigFile
echo myConfigFile > .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "from now on, no more myConfigFile"

The other extreme approach (dangerous especially if you have already pushed your repo to a remote one) would be to entirely remove that file from the history of said repo:

git filter-branch --index-filter 'git update-index --remove myConfigFile' HEAD

(to use with care, and with a backup first)

The question How do I remove sensitive files from git’s history has more on that sensitive topic.

The problems with this process are twofold:

1/ If your repo has already be cloned, you can never guarantee the confidential information will be really "gone" from every other repo. 2/ When others try pull down your latest changes after this, they'll get a message indicating that the the changes can't be applied because it's not a fast-forward. To fix this, they'll have to either delete their existing repository and re-clone it, or follow the instructions under "RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" in the git-rebase manpage.
In both case, your confidential information will not be "quietly" replaced or erased...

Answer 4

cp my-config config.tmp
git rm my-config
git commit -m 'removed config'
mv config.tmp my-config
echo my-config >> .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit -m 'ignore config'

Answer 5

Sorry I explained my problem badly.

I want to remove the file from all commits tree because it contains my passwords.