git-filter-branch

Remove file from history

$ git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm -f [file]' HEAD

$ git filter-branch --env-filter 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="[new@email]"' HEAD

$ git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter [dir] HEAD

$ git filter-branch --prune-empty HEAD

$ git filter-branch -f --tree-filter '[command]' HEAD

git filter-branch [options] [--] [rev-list]

git filter-branch is a powerful but deprecated tool for rewriting Git history by applying filter commands to every commit in a branch. It walks through the entire commit history, allowing modifications to trees, commit messages, author information, or other metadata.
The subdirectory-filter is particularly useful for extracting a subdirectory into a new repository with its history intact. Performance is notably poor on large repositories because it must check out every commit's tree. This limitation led to the development of git-filter-repo as the official replacement.

--tree-filter cmd

Rewrite tree and contents.

Modify environment.

Rewrite commit messages.

Extract subdirectory.

Remove empty commits.

Force overwrite backup.

Officially deprecated in favor of git-filter-repo. Slow on large repositories. Changes history, invalidating commit hashes and requiring force pushes. Collaborators must reclone. Creates backup refs that must be manually cleaned.

git-filter-repo(1), git-rebase(1)