title: Git: Remove credentials from repository
body: <p>At first: This is (hopefully) no duplicate of <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/307828/git-remove-file-accidentally-added-to-the-repository">this</a> or <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/495345/git-removing-selected-commits-from-repository">this</a>.</p>
  
  <p><strong>The current status:</strong> I committed a file with credentials for an internal database to my Git repository. This was fine, as I used it only alone. Then my group started to clone, push and pull around in this project. We now have several Git repositories (one central and some developers).</p>
  
  <p><strong>The problem:</strong> We now want to give public access to the source code, and to the Git repository or at least let Git manage the details of others contributing to the code.</p>
  
  <p><strong>The question:</strong> What would be a good strategy to</p>
  
  <p>a) remove the file with the credentials from the central or from all repositories, or</p>
  
  <p>b) set up a new Git repository as kind of 'interface' to the outer world?</p>
  
  <p>If choosing (b), how could we easily communicate changes back to the main repository?</p>
  
  <p>Due to the already widespread distribution, we'd really like to not do a <code>git rebase</code> or a <code>git filter-branch</code> on each and every current repository.</p>