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Trying to reduce repo size with git filter repo


I am have a large repository that is now out of hand. So I am trying to delete old files, deleted files, binaries that I accidentally added to the history...

To this effect I am using git filter repo as follows:

python3 ~/git-filter-repo/git-filter-repo --path <path to old directory> --invert-paths --force

When I run:

python3 ~/git-filter-repo/git-filter-repo --analyze

All the files I wanted to get rid off stop appearing in the analysis output, which is good.

I deleted what I suspect should have been 1 GB of old, usless data, but when I pushed the repository is now LARGER than it was before the push.

I don't understand what I am doing wrong.

Locally the analysis tool says my repo should be about 80 MB not 2.8 GB which is what gitlab currently claims.


Solution

  • The "old, useless data" will be garbage collected on the GitLab side later on, and when that happens you should see the repo size shrink as expected. Right now, it still contains all the old data plus the rewritten history that you just pushed.