diff --git a/.github/dependabot.yml b/.github/dependabot.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 57995a43..00000000
--- a/.github/dependabot.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
----
-version: 2
-updates:
-  - package-ecosystem: "github-actions"
-    directory: "/"
-    schedule:
-      interval: "monthly"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Documentation/git-filter-repo.txt b/Documentation/git-filter-repo.txt
index bb00203f..576489b6 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-filter-repo.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-filter-repo.txt
@@ -572,9 +572,11 @@ history rewrite are roughly as follows:
      hosting provider about how to remove any server-side references
      to the old commits (example:
      https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/repository/reducing_the_repo_size_using_git.html[GitLab's
-     excellent docs on reducing repository size], or
-     https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/removing-sensitive-data-from-a-repository#fully-removing-the-data-from-github[the
-     first and second steps under "Fully removing the data from GitHub"]).
+     excellent docs on reducing repository size], or just the warning
+     box that references "GitHub support" from
+     https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/removing-sensitive-data-from-a-repository[GitHub's
+     otherwise dangerously out-of-date docs on removing sensitive
+     data]).
 
 6. (Optional) Some additional considerations
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d50f3bbc..470bfde1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -130,14 +130,15 @@ github_release: update_docs
 
 pypi_release: # Has an implicit dependency on github_release because...
 	# Upload to PyPI, automatically picking tag created by github_release
-	python3 -m venv venv
-	venv/bin/pip install --upgrade pip
-	venv/bin/pip install build twine
-	venv/bin/pyproject-build
+	cd release && python3 -m venv venv
+	cd release && venv/bin/pip3 install --upgrade setuptools pip
+	cd release && venv/bin/pip3 install twine wheel
+	cd release && venv/bin/python3 setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
 	# Note: hope you remember password for pypi, but username is 'newren'
-	venv/bin/twine upload dist/*
+	cd release && venv/bin/twine upload dist/*
 	# Remove temporary file(s)
-	rm -rf dist/ venv/ git_filter_repo.egg-info/
+	cd release && rm -f README.md git-filter-repo git_filter_repo.py
+	cd release && rm -rf .eggs/ build/ venv/ git_filter_repo.egg-info/
 
 # NOTE TO FUTURE SELF: If you accidentally push a bad release, you can remove
 # all but the git-filter-repo-$VERSION.tar.xz asset with
diff --git a/contrib/filter-repo-demos/clean-ignore b/contrib/filter-repo-demos/clean-ignore
index a8427e8c..23287e13 100755
--- a/contrib/filter-repo-demos/clean-ignore
+++ b/contrib/filter-repo-demos/clean-ignore
@@ -55,11 +55,8 @@ class CheckIgnores:
         if not source and not linenum and not pattern:
           self.okay.add(name)
         else:
-          if pattern[0:1] == b"!":
-            self.okay.add(name)
-          else:
-            self.ignored.add(name)
-            ignored.add(name)
+          self.ignored.add(name)
+          ignored.add(name)
 
     return ignored
 
diff --git a/contrib/filter-repo-demos/lint-history b/contrib/filter-repo-demos/lint-history
index 22061962..61967b73 100755
--- a/contrib/filter-repo-demos/lint-history
+++ b/contrib/filter-repo-demos/lint-history
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ near the top of git-filter-repo.
 # about filenames, then this program could be replaced by a "one-liner"; e.g.
 #    git filter-repo --force --blob-callback '
 #      if not b"\0" in blob.data[0:8192]:
-#        filename = ".git/info/tmpfile"
+#        filename = '.git/info/tmpfile'
 #        with open(filename, "wb") as f:
 #          f.write(blob.data)
 #        subprocess.check_call(["lint_program", "--some", "arg", filename])
@@ -104,8 +104,6 @@ parser.add_argument('command', nargs=argparse.REMAINDER,
 lint_args = parser.parse_args()
 if not lint_args.command:
   raise SystemExit("Error: Need to specify a lint command")
-if len(lint_args.command) > 1 and lint_args.command[0] == '--':
-  lint_args.command.pop(0)
 
 tmpdir = None
 blobs_handled = {}
@@ -164,7 +162,7 @@ if lint_args.relevant:
   lint_args.filenames_important = True
 input_args = []
 if lint_args.refs:
-  input_args = ["--refs",] + lint_args.refs
+  input_args = ["--args",] + lint_args.refs
 args = fr.FilteringOptions.parse_args(input_args, error_on_empty = False)
 args.force = True
 if lint_args.filenames_important:
@@ -177,7 +175,5 @@ if lint_args.filenames_important:
   cat_file_process.stdin.close()
   cat_file_process.wait()
 else:
-  if not os.path.exists('.git/info'):
-    os.makedirs('.git/info')
   filter = fr.RepoFilter(args, blob_callback=lint_non_binary_blobs)
   filter.run()
diff --git a/git-filter-repo b/git-filter-repo
index 3dfe5569..e438c38c 100755
--- a/git-filter-repo
+++ b/git-filter-repo
@@ -51,13 +51,6 @@ __all__ = ["Blob", "Reset", "FileChange", "Commit", "Tag", "Progress",
            "string_to_date", "date_to_string",
            "record_id_rename", "GitUtils", "FilteringOptions", "RepoFilter"]
 
-# The globals to make visible to callbacks. They will see all our imports for
-# free, as well as our public API.
-public_globals = ["__builtins__", "argparse", "collections", "fnmatch",
-                  "gettext", "io", "os", "platform", "re", "shutil",
-                  "subprocess", "sys", "time", "textwrap", "tzinfo",
-                  "timedelta", "datetime"] + __all__
-
 deleted_hash = b'0'*40
 write_marks = True
 date_format_permissive = True
@@ -2851,11 +2844,9 @@ class RepoFilter(object):
 
   def _handle_arg_callbacks(self):
     def make_callback(argname, str):
-      callback_globals = {g: globals()[g] for g in public_globals}
-      callback_locals = {}
       exec('def callback({}, _do_not_use_this_var = None):\n'.format(argname)+
-           '  '+'\n  '.join(str.splitlines()), callback_globals, callback_locals)
-      return callback_locals['callback']
+           '  '+'\n  '.join(str.splitlines()), globals())
+      return callback #namespace['callback']
     def handle(type):
       callback_field = '_{}_callback'.format(type)
       code_string = getattr(self._args, type+'_callback')
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
deleted file mode 100644
index e6cee7a5..00000000
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-[project]
-name = "git-filter-repo"
-description = "Quickly rewrite git repository history"
-authors = [
-    {name = "Elijah Newren", email = "newren@gmail.com"}
-]
-readme = "README.md"
-classifiers = [
-    "Development Status :: 4 - Beta",
-    "Operating System :: OS Independent",
-    "Programming Language :: Python",
-    "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPython",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPy",
-]
-license.text = "MIT"
-requires-python = ">= 3.5"
-dynamic = ["version"]
-
-[project.urls]
-Homepage = "https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo"
-Issues = "https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo/issues/"
-Source = "https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo"
-
-[project.scripts]
-git-filter-repo = "git_filter_repo:main"
-
-[build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=61", "setuptools_scm>=8.0", "wheel"]
-build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
-
-[tool.setuptools]
-py-modules = ["git_filter_repo"]
-
-[tool.setuptools_scm]
-# This section intentionally left blank
diff --git a/release/setup.cfg b/release/setup.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..078f3ff5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/setup.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+[metadata]
+name = git-filter-repo
+url = https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo
+project_urls =
+    Source = https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo
+    Issues = https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo/issues/
+description = Quickly rewrite git repository history
+long_description = file: README.md
+long_description_content_type = text/markdown
+classifiers =
+    Development Status :: 4 - Beta
+    Operating System :: OS Independent
+    Programming Language :: Python
+    License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
+    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5
+    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6
+    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7
+    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
+    Programming Language :: Python :: 3
+    Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPython
+    Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPy
+platforms = any
+license = MIT
+
+[options]
+scripts = git-filter-repo
+py_modules = git_filter_repo
+python_requires = >= 3.5
+setup_requires = setuptools_scm
+
+[bdist_wheel]
+universal = 1
diff --git a/release/setup.py b/release/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0e36611a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+from setuptools import setup
+import os
+
+
+def link_parent(src, target=None):
+    if target is None:
+        target = src
+    try:
+        os.symlink(os.path.join("..", src), target)
+    except FileExistsError:
+        pass
+
+
+for f in ['git-filter-repo', 'README.md']:
+    link_parent(f)
+
+link_parent('git-filter-repo', 'git_filter_repo.py')
+
+
+setup(use_scm_version=dict(root="..", relative_to=__file__),
+      entry_points={'console_scripts': ['git-filter-repo = git_filter_repo:main']})
diff --git a/t/run_coverage b/t/run_coverage
index be5e8a89..5517459b 100755
--- a/t/run_coverage
+++ b/t/run_coverage
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ exitcode=$?
 set -e
 
 cd $tmpdir
-coverage3 combine -q
+coverage3 combine
 coverage3 html -d $orig_dir/report
 coverage3 report -m
 cd $orig_dir
diff --git a/t/t9391-filter-repo-lib-usage.sh b/t/t9391-filter-repo-lib-usage.sh
index 192eacff..6e62a70e 100755
--- a/t/t9391-filter-repo-lib-usage.sh
+++ b/t/t9391-filter-repo-lib-usage.sh
@@ -205,44 +205,6 @@ test_expect_success 'lint-history' '
 	)
 '
 
-test_expect_success 'lint-history --refs' '
-	test_create_repo lint-history-only-some-refs &&
-	(
-		cd lint-history-only-some-refs &&
-		test_commit a somefile bad &&
-		test_commit b notherfile baaad &&
-		test_commit c whatever baaaaaad &&
-		git checkout -b mybranch HEAD~1 &&
-		test_commit d somefile baaaaaaaad &&
-		test_commit e whatever "baaaaaaaaaad to the bone" &&
-
-		cat <<-EOF >linter.sh &&
-		#!/bin/bash
-		cat \$1 | tr -d a >tmp
-		mv tmp \$1
-		EOF
-		chmod u+x linter.sh &&
-
-		PATH=$PATH:. $CONTRIB_DIR/lint-history --refs master..mybranch  -- linter.sh &&
-
-		echo bd >expect &&
-		echo bd to the bone >long-expect &&
-
-		# Verify master is untouched
-		git checkout master &&
-		! test_cmp somefile expect &&
-		! test_cmp notherfile expect &&
-		! test_cmp whatever expect &&
-
-		# Verify that files touched on the branch are tweaked
-		git checkout mybranch &&
-		test_cmp somefile expect &&
-		! test_cmp notherfile expect &&
-		test_cmp whatever long-expect
-
-	)
-'
-
 test_expect_success 'clean-ignore with emoji in filenames' '
 	test_create_repo clean-ignore &&
 	(