Effortlessly Deleting Commit History in GitHub:

A Comprehensive Guide to clean up commit history of a remote repository

How to delete complete commit history of a remote GitHub repository

Introduction

In my previous Blog, I explained how to remove selective commit history from your Github repository. This blog is focused on How to remove all commit History and start afresh. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process, step by step, providing you with actionable techniques to effortlessly delete commit history in GitHub.

Understanding the Importance of Deleting Commit History

Maintaining a clean and organized commit history is essential for several reasons. Here are a few key benefits of deleting commit history in GitHub:

1. Protecting Sensitive Information: In some cases, commit messages or code changes may inadvertently contain sensitive information such as passwords or API keys. By deleting commit history, you can ensure that these confidential details are permanently removed from your repository.
2. Streamlining Your Repository: Over time, repositories can become cluttered with unnecessary or outdated commits. By deleting commit history, you can streamline your repository, improving its overall efficiency. This makes it easier for developers to navigate and comprehend the project’s history.
3. Starting Fresh: If you want to create a clean starting point for your project or remove old, irrelevant commits, deleting commit history allows you to establish a fresh repository with a refined history.

Step-by-Step Guide to Delete Commit History in GitHub

Follow these step-by-step instructions to effectively delete commit history in GitHub:

Step 1: Create a Backup

Before proceeding with deleting commit history, it is crucial to create a backup of your repository. This ensures that you have a safety net in case anything goes wrong during the process.

$ git clone <repository_url>

Step 2: Create an oprhan Branch

Alternatively, a new orphan branch can be created. Lets give it a descriptive name “cleaned-history” and switch to it to ensure that any further changes will be made on this new branch..

git checkout --orphan cleaned-history 

Step 3: Add and Commit Changes

Now, its time to add all files to the “cleaned-history” branch. Just add them and commit the changes. With this, only new commit with “-m” tag will be persisted in the commit history and all other history of commits will be deleted.

git add -A  git commit -am "initial commit"

Step 4: Delete old branch

Now, delete the old branch, from where your checkout previously. Assuming your previous branch was “main” then following command will be used.

git branch -D main

Step 5: Rename the New Branch

The “cleaned-history” branch then need to be renamed to “main” or to the name of the original branch you deleted:

git branch -m main

Step 6: Force Push the Changes to GitHub

As a final step, you need to forced push changes to the remote branch. This will override your remote Github repository with a cleaned state of commit history. All your previous commit history will be gone so it is advisable to delete history with caution.

git push -f origin main

Conclusion

Deleting commit history in GitHub is a valuable technique to maintain a clean and organized repository. By following the step-by-step guide provided in this article, you can effortlessly delete commit history while preserving the integrity of your project. Remember to create backups, exercise caution, and communicate changes with collaborators. With these best practices in mind, you can effectively manage your commit history in GitHub and optimize your development workflow.