How to move some files in Git history to LFS with a single command

I’m assuming you already know what Git LFS is and have it set up already.

Today I have updated GoogleCast SDK in my project to 4.7.0 beta which has support for Apple Silicon simulators. I created a pull request and noticed that there is some binary files of size almost 20MB. So I and the team think it’s a good idea to put it in Git LFS.

The problem is, that binary file is already tracked in git months ago. How can I update git’s reference to it throughout the history?

My first idea is I have to git lfs track to update .gitattribute for that file at the right commit, then manually re-add the commits in one big interactive rebase. That’s is… too much.

Fortunately, there is a quicker way using git lfs migrate import . The documentation is here.

Using `git lfs migrate`

Let’s say the file is at **/GoogleCast.framework/GoogleCast. The are 2 variants of it for different architectures.

The GoogleCast framework binary file

• find the commit BEFORE you added the large file (e.g. 4c3488dafe)
• run this command

git lfs migrate import --verbose \
--include="**/GoogleCast.framework/GoogleCast" \
--include-ref=HEAD \
--exclude-ref=4c3488dafe

This will rewrite git history 4c3488dafe to HEAD, converting specified files to pointers and add **/GoogleCast.framework/GoogleCast filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text to .gitattributes in the commit the file is introduced.

Quick Tip: Don’t confuse the mode import with export! They are completely opposite operations. More on available modes options here.

Output:

migrate: Sorting commits: ..., done.
migrate: commit d5b2988f2e3d4fcc51dc9ffcf61646444bcec705: App/Features/GoogleCast/GoogleCastSDK-ios-no-bluetooth-4.7.0_dynamic_beta.xcframework/ios-arm64/GoogleCast.framework/GoogleCast
migrate: commit d5b2988f2e3d4fcc51dc9ffcf61646444bcec705: App/Features/GoogleCast/GoogleCastSDK-ios-no-bluetooth-4.7.0_dynamic_beta.xcframework/ios-arm64_x86_64-simulator/GoogleCast.framework/GoogleCast
migrate: Rewriting commits: 100% (13/13), done.
  chore/m1-support-no-lfs                           	6ce8dc46c3c81b3973416f06648986622ca35b29 -> f826ed0aa3428a49e819ea29fde5f4cda22c3b96
migrate: Updating refs: ..., done.
migrate: checkout: ..., done.

• pushing to remote branch should show “Uploading LFS objects”

Uploading LFS objects: 100% (2/2), 28 MB | 0 B/s, done.
Enumerating objects: 757, done.
Counting objects: 100% (757/757), done.
Delta compression using up to 12 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (532/532), done.
Writing objects: 100% (702/702), 10.05 MiB | 7.05 MiB/s, done.
Total 702 (delta 199), reused 578 (delta 160), pack-reused 0

That’s it. Enjoy!