For developers, unintentionally uploading private data to a public repository can be catastrophic. Pushing the .env file, which contains sensitive data including API keys, passwords, and other credentials, is one of the most frequent mistakes. Don't panic if you've unintentionally pushed a .env file to a Git repository! To protect your private data, we'll go over how to safely delete a .env file that was accidentally pushed in Git in this article.

First Things First: Save the .env File to .gitignore

Place .env in the .gitignore file to prevent it from being pushed to the repository in the future. If you haven't already, create a .gitignore file in the root directory of your project. Add .env to the .gitignore file to ensure that it is not included in the repository.

Remove the .env File from the Git Repository

To remove the .env file from the Git repository, run the following commands:

git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch .env" HEAD

Force Push the Changes

git push --force
# or
git push origin <branch-name> --force

Voilà! The .env file has been successfully removed from the Git repository. Remember to update your credentials and API keys to prevent unauthorized access to your application.