Removing history entries for files and not being able to checkout folder

Question

I downloaded the lithium library from it's git repo a while back, and was using that to build on my own application. I hadn't thought about the possible git issues as I didn't know much about git at the time (still don't really) - but I've now put this git repo onto GitHub as I will need to collaborate with some people; however the whole history of the commits for the lithium framework is in there, as would be expected.

Basically I have committed a load of stuff myself in developing the application, and it seems to be causing some issues. I didn't know if there was a way to remove the history of the lithium files (or from a particular date, i.e. when I started committing files) or something that I can do to resolve it. I don't really want to start my git repo again from scratch as there is quite a bit of history in it that is useful.

If anyone could suggest something that I might be able to do, either in removing the history from a date or exporting some of it...?

Because of this, I think it has stopped me being able to download the lithium folder when checking out the code - looking at the folder in Github, I just see a folder with a green arrow when I look at /libraries/lithium and no way to click on it or see why that is the case.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Dan

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '12 at 01:36

That green arrow you see points to a submodule, which lives there: https://github.com/UnionOfRAD/lithium (git submodule init && git submodule update)

What I would do is to pick a fresh version of lithium itself and start using it. You'd have mostly modified files from the framework which is your application and can remain so. Keep your actual version somewhere, you'll always be able to check any modifications using a diff application like Meld, KDiff, …

I don't think it'd be that complex to start over, file by files with a proper diff tool.

Don't hesitate to join us on IRC: irc://irc.freenode.net/#li3 to ask anything you want about li3 and stuff.

Best of luck!

You can simplify submodule init and update with `git submodule update --init` — michaeltwofish, Mar 21 '12 at 12:24
if he wants and can upgrade its code from the framework repository, it's a valid solution indeed. — greut, Mar 21 '12 at 12:32

Removing history entries for files and not being able to checkout folder

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