remove file from git history, prune & garbage collect, push removal to origin

git-prune-file.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Get filename from cmd-line arg
filename=$1

# Fetch all remote branches locally and setup tracking
for branch in `git branch -a | grep remotes | grep -v HEAD | grep -v master`; do
    git branch --track ${branch##*/} $branch
done

# Remove file from git history & garbage collect
git filter-branch --tag-name-filter cat --index-filter 'git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch $filename' --prune-empty -f -- --all
rm -rf .git/refs/original/
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --prune=now
git gc --aggressive --prune=now

# Push updates
git push origin --force --all
git push origin --force --tags