Warning
If you follow along this blog post, here's what you can expect.
- You **WILL** lose _all the files you delete from disk_, as well, so make a copy
- You **WILL** re-write history. This means that the _SHA_ of every commit since the first image was committed **WILL** mostly likely change.
- You **WILL** end up essentially with a new repository that shares very little similarities with the original, so **BACKUP**!.
Now that we got the _warning_ out of the way, let's begin the serious work.
## Clone the repository {#clone-the-repository}
I bet you can do this with your eyes closed by now.
```text
$ # Backup your directory !
$ mv blog.lazkani.io blog-archive
$ git clone git@git.project42.io:Elia/blog.lazkani.io.git blog.lazkani.io
$ cd blog.lazkani.io
```
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
## Remove images from history {#remove-images-from-history}
Now, this is a tough one. Alright, let's browse.
Oh what is that thing [git-filter-repo](https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo) ! Alright looks good.
We can install it in different ways, check the project documentation but what I did, _in a python virtual environment_, was.
```text
$ pip install git-filter-repo
```
Warning
Before you commit to using _git-lfs_, make sure that your _git_ server supports it.
If you have a pipeline, make sure it doesn't break it.
I already stashed our original project like a big boy, so now I get to use it.
```text
$ cp -r ../blog-archive/images .
```
Then we can initialize _git-lfs_.
```text
$ git lfs install
Updated git hooks.
Git LFS initialized.
```
Okay ! We are good to go.
Next step, we need to tell _git-lfs_ where are the files we care about. In my case, my needs are very simple.
```text
$ git lfs track "*.png"
Tracking "*.png"
```
I've only used _PNG_ images so far, so now that they are tracked you should see a `.gitattributes` file created if you didn't have one already.
From this step onward, _git-lfs_ doesn't differ too much from regular _git_. In this case it was.
```text
$ git add .gitattributes
$ git add images/
$ git status
On branch master
Changes to be committed:
(use "git restore --staged