azure devops - Git cleanup/garbage collection on remote VSO git repository

Question

We are trying to clean up the history of a git repository hosted on VSO/team services. Using bfg and git-filter-branch we removed about ~80% of stored objects by cleaning accidentally checken in packages folders etc.

After successfully rewriting the repository’s git history we force pushed to visualstudio.com but new clones of that repo seem to suggest that none of the objects were actually removed. We found hints here and there indicating that TFS does not perform any garbage collection on git objects.

Is that (still) true for VSO as well?

Any improvements planned?

Deleting and recreating the repository would probably be a workaround but doesn’t seem that elegant.

Answer 1

Yes, it’s still true for VSTS (VSO) now. But git gc on the server is in our backlog, so it will be improved in the future.

The option for now is recreating a new repo and push again (as you mentioned).