git_squash_but_last_n_commits

a bash script to squash git commits before last n commits and remove unused files from .git

Setup

chmod +x git_squash_but_last_n_commits.sh

And put git_squash_but_last_n_commits.sh to some directory in the PATH

Example

before squash

% git log
commit d08f035be73e38cfe20fdf492302ca0dab659f90
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:49 2014

    Add hello6

commit 8424ea78bf5a9a5634b6a647b2088ff255ce452f
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:48 2014

    Add hello5

commit aaa014a51dc1c4bcdc6ba82327eb12d230384c6a
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:43 2014

    Add hello4

commit 2027c22669fb02734c4ae5e20a02d3823a393878
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:43 2014

    Add hello3

commit cc4acfd45dfdc96cfc77cb063f7dde27f954bb6e
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:42 2014

    Add hello2

commit 648a7d26a6bdb18cc795824499e8abd4e7e8e28b
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:30 2014

    Initial commit

squash

Specify the count of commits to keep as the argument.

% git_squash_but_last_n_commits.sh 2

after squash

% git log
commit 752513b0c510bd69d143d91778936b74721ce6a2
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:49 2014

    Add hello6

commit 3b0f962b9b10ecbab97db37e34c89b3e9ea0b892
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:48 2014

    Add hello5

commit 504c12abe51fdc6b1fa38c7bce985c2449661957
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:42 2014

    Add hello2

    Add hello3

    Add hello4

commit 648a7d26a6bdb18cc795824499e8abd4e7e8e28b
Author: Hiroaki Nakamura <hnakamur@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Nov 15 21:10:30 2014

    Initial commit

Caveats

The first commit will not be squashed like the above example.

Actually you can squash the first commit using newer version of git like 2.1.3

git_squash_but_last_n_commits/git_squash_but_last_n_commits.sh

Line 12 in 1057919

end=$(($old_commits - $keep_commits))

However old version of git like 1.7.1 on CentOS 6.6 prints the error You must specify --onto when using --root for git rebase -i --root.

After all, I came to think I will keep the first commit because the date of the first commit is important and I would like to see it after squash.