Re: Can git log <file> follow log of its origins?

From: Sean <seanlkml@sympatico.ca>
Date: Jan 29, 2008, 18:17 UTC
Message-ID: <BAYC1-PASMTP0711D909B278C305D7F28AAE350@CEZ.ICE>
In-Reply-To: <333479.13589.qm@web45901.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:48:05 -0800 (PST) Max Pollard <ajaxsupremo@yahoo.com> wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> If I do the following:
> 
>      $ git init
>      $ echo "The brown fox is getting old" > a.txt
>      $ git add a.txt
>      $ git commit -m "Commit a.txt"
> 
>      $ cp a.txt b.txt
>      $ git add b.txt
>      $ git commit -m "Copy a.txt to b.txt"
> 
>      $ git log b.txt
> 
> I only see the log corresponding to the 2nd commit (v1.5.3.5).  Is it possible
> to have the above command keep going and show the history of a.txt?  Or at
> least somehow indicate that b.txt originated from a.txt?

Hi Max,

Not sure it will leave you feeling totally satisfied but the following command will at least show you the copy which occurred in that commit:

$ git log --full-diff -C --find-copies-harder --stat -- b.txt
commit 578ecbc516e70ce7178545233192a08369a07101
Author: xyz <x@y.z>
Date:   Tue Jan 29 13:11:16 2008 -0500

    Copy a.txt to b.txt

 a.txt => b.txt |    0 
 1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

If you had done a rename instead of a copy, then "git log --follow b.txt" would have done what you're looking for, but there is no corresponding option to follow copies.

HTH, Sean