The Gitential Guide on How to
Reduce the Size of Your Git Repository

• split repository – Changing git history can be risky. Even if the repository becomes big, it is better to start a new and keep the old one for the changelog. Rewriting git history is a possibility but it also has effects on our analysis. That’s why creating new smaller repositories as clones of the original and using filter-branch on the new repositories to achieve the “split” is a better solution.

Some additional ways of how to reduce the size of your git repository include:

• git repack – combines all objects into a pack that aren’t already in one or to combine existing packs into a more efficient pack.
• git prune-packed – this program will search the $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY and remove all duplicates of objects that are already in a pack or independent object directory.
• git reflog – lets you manually remove old references based on a time period that you select.
  Delete unneeded branches and tags or move them to a separate fork in your repository that other developers won’t fetch from.

After you’ve deleted your unwanted files, branches, and tags, and rewritten your repo history, don’t forget to implement the preventative maintenance measures discussed previously.