Re: Proposal: tell git a file has been renamed

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Date: Apr 23, 2023, 21:01 UTC
Message-ID: <f249ec0f-f2f0-43d8-bb70-5a4a7c91c608@app.fastmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <8fe188a9-c01f-9fb5-5877-8ff508094b22@game-point.net>

On Sat, Apr 22, 2023, at 20:01, Jeremy Morton wrote:

Show 6 quoted lines

> 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.

I don’t see the (conceptual) problem with a modification of this as a history rewriting tool:

• Given a series of commits:
• Tool X modifies all the commits so that the default similarity index
  for tools like git-log(1) is triggered on intended file renames
• The user will be probably be prompted with a list of initial potential
  renames and then will
  • Keep the intended renames
  • Remove the not-intended renames
  • Add the additional renames

But this looks like something that a third-party tool could implement.

-- 
Kristoffer Haugsbakk