Re: Proposal: tell git a file has been renamed

From

JMJeremy Morton <admin@game-point.net>

Date

Apr 22, 2023, 19:54 UTC

Message-ID

<3ac19159-7314-c299-5112-b0f7aa2cc409@game-point.net>

In-Reply-To

<01ce01d97553$4361f990$ca25ecb0$@nexbridge.com>

https://stackoverflow.com/a/1094392/178757

says:

git mv oldname newname

is just shorthand for:

-- 
Best regards,
Jeremy Morton (Jez)

On 22/04/2023 20:47, rsbecker@nexbridge.com wrote:
> No, history is preserved in the rename.
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jeremy Morton <admin@game-point.net>
>> Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2023 3:45 PM
>> To: rsbecker@nexbridge.com; git@vger.kernel.org
>> Subject: Re: Proposal: tell git a file has been renamed
>>
>> I read that git mv is basically the equivalent to deleting the old file, creating the new
>> file, and adding the changes.  Isn't it?  If so it's gonna have the same problem as I
>> have now.
>>
>> --
>> Best regards,
>> Jeremy Morton (Jez)
>>
>> On 22/04/2023 19:54, rsbecker@nexbridge.com wrote:
>>> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 2:02 PM, Jeremy Morton wrote:
>>>> Yes, I know Linus specifically doesn't store file rename info in Git.
>>>> The trouble is, every now and then, I'll come across a situation
>>>> where Git doesn't successfully detect that I've renamed a file
>>>> because I'm doing something like renaming a class at the same time.
>>>> So I'll have a file OldClassNameTests.cs and a NewClassNameTests.cs
>>>> but a bunch of lines in that file have also changed from
>>>> OldClassName.DoThing() to NewClassName.DoThing().  I can clearly see
>>>> that this is a rename, but Git sees enough changed content that it
>>>> doesn't realize it, and puts it in as a delete/add, losing the content history.
>>>>
>>>> The standard answer for this is to rename the file in one commit,
>>>> then make the changes.  That's fine if you know ahead of time you'll
>>>> want to do this.  However it's a total PITA if you have a bunch of
>>>> changes and you realize that a rename has caused this problem.  You
>>>> now have to back out your changes to the renamed file, add the rename, commit
>> it, then re-apply the changes.
>>>>
>>>> Could a command be added to git that means you tell Git that counts
>>>> as a file rename?  Git would add a marker to the staging area that
>>>> the file has been renamed, and upon commit, would first generate an
>>>> additional commit for each rename before generating the main commit,
>>>> ensuring the rename operation counts as an actual rename, and the content's
>> history is maintained.
>>>
>>> Would git mv work in your situation? You can stage changes to the original file,
>> then use git mv. Or use git mv first. The rename shows as staged in any event.
>>> --Randall
>>>
>>>
> 
>