Using git filter-branch to remove commits by their commit message

Question

Simple Version:

If I have a branch \"foo-555\", with a bunch of commits with messages like:

• foo 555: blah
• foo 123: blah blah<

Answer 1

Write a script to remove lines with Redmine #555:

#!/bin/sh

mv $1 $1.$$
grep -v 'Redmine #555' < $1.$$ > $1
rm -f $1.$$

Of course you can do that however you want (eg echo a script of commands to ed).

Then launch your rebase with EDITOR set to your script:

EDITOR=/path/to/script git rebase -i REVISION

Of course it still won't be guaranteed to complete -- there may be errors during the rebase caused by leaving out revisions. You can still fix them and git rebase --continue manually.

Answer 2

Here's a fast solution that uses filter-branch instead of rebasing. There's no interactivity or needing to resolve conflicts.

git filter-branch --commit-filter '
    if [ `git rev-list --all --grep "<log-pattern>" | grep -c "$GIT_COMMIT"` -gt 0 ]
    then
        skip_commit "$@";
    else
        git commit-tree "$@";
    fi'  HEAD

You'll probably want to then clean up with:

git reflog expire --expire=now
git gc --prune=now