Check out “git filter-repo”.
It’s safer, faster, easier to use.
Oh, and not built-in.
It’s safer, faster, easier to use.
Oh, and not built-in.
But you're right. filter-repo is a great tool. You can even use pleasant Python "callbacks" instead of a hodge-podge of env variables and shell snippets.
If a point is to be made that confirms OP: removing a file completely isn’t trivial, and thinking one did when one didn’t it is too easy.
Who recommended it?
I’m not saying they recommend it, as the question drives a rhetorical point. But it’s worth mentioning “git filter-repo” as a solution you will not stumble into as easily as the more difficult, brittle and slow “git filter-branch”.