Re: rewriting the entire git history... how?

[Tim Woodall]

On Tue, 9 Dec 2025, Tim Woodall wrote:

I want to rewrite git history from the very first commit (which is an empty commit) but nothing I can find seems to let me do this other than with manual intervention.

This is a one off and doesn't need to be efficient so long as I can leave it to get on with it without intervention.

This is what I have: (private-email is a place holder)

===
#!/bin/bash

for commit in $( git rev-list --all --reverse master ); do
 git cherry-pick --strategy-option=theirs $commit

 echo "running sed"

sed -i 's/private-em...@woodall.me.uk/buil...@woodall.me.uk/g' $( git grep -l 'private-em...@woodall.me.uk' )

GIT_AUTHOR_DATE="$(git show -s --format=%ad HEAD)" GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="$(git show -s --format=%ad HEAD)" git commit -a --amend --reset-author --no-edit --allow-empty

done
===

replaced the cherry-pick with:

===
  if ! git cherry-pick --allow-empty --strategy-option=theirs $commit; then
    git rm $( git status | grep 'deleted by them:' | cut -d: -f2 )
    git rm $( git status | grep 'added by us:' | cut -d: -f2 )
    git add $( git status | grep 'deleted by us:' | cut -d: -f2 )
    git cherry-pick --continue --no-edit --allow-empty
  fi
===

and so far it's making progress...