First, analyze the git storage in the directory with:
git filter-repo --analyze
Then the large files can be removed from git history using git filter-repo as follows:
git filter-repo --strip-blobs-bigger-than 10M
This removes all files larger than 10MB from .git/objects/ directory. You may have to use --force argument, if the repository is not a fresh clone. The command will also remove the origin remote, so you will need to readd it!
To remove deleted files from history, first make a list of all such deleted files and save them in path-deleted.txt. Then do:
git filter-repo --invert-paths --paths-from-file .git/filter-repo/analysis/path-deleted.txt --force
To clear all PDF files from git history:
git filter-repo --path '**/*.pdf' --invert-path --force --prune-empty auto
For other kinds of files and file extensions, edit the relevant pathname in the command above!
At the end, force push the new git history to the remote origin branch:
git push origin main --force --tags --prune
You can check the directory file storage using du -h -d 2 | sort -hu.
NOTE: These command can be run routinely to remove large files from git history, whenever a storage space crunch happens!
See: