World 11: Rescue Center

I committed a huge file

You will learn: how to get a huge file out of a commit before it spreads.

The problem

Your push crawls. Then GitHub refuses it: video.mp4 is too big. Oops! This happens to everyone. Here’s the safe way out.

Try it

GitHub refused the push. So where is the video now?

Watch

~/diary $ git rm --cached video.mp4rm 'video.mp4'~/diary $ git status -sD  video.mp4?? video.mp4

git rm --cached video.mp4 tells Git to stop tracking it. The video stays on your computer, safe.

Try it

Take the video out of the last commit. Ignore *.mp4 so it can’t sneak back.

Working folder

Empty

Staging area

Empty

Repository

4 save points
Add trip page
Add style
Add day 1 page

Hint

Type git rm --cached video.mp4, then echo "*.mp4" >> .gitignore and git add .gitignore. Last, git commit --amend --no-edit.

Predict

New story: the video was smaller, and the push worked. You delete it in a new commit. Is the repo small again?

Check

Commit it, or keep it out of Git? Sort each file.

Drag a card into a box. Or tap the card, then tap the box.

You did it!

You can now get a huge file out before it spreads.

Go deeper (optional)

GitHub warns above 50 MiB and blocks files over 100 MiB. Need big files in a repo? Git LFS is an add-on: git lfs track "*.mp4" keeps videos outside normal history. Big file in an older commit, not pushed? git reset --soft origin/main puts all unpushed work back in the box. Remove the file, then commit again.