# How to `git blame` individual characters? 2 messages from 2018-03-27 to 2018-03-27. Participants: Jan Keromnes, Christian Couder. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/48160 ## Jan Keromnes, 2018-03-27 00:18 Subject: How to `git blame` individual characters? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAA6PgK7L04VoHT7A8M_mwq5kA%2B9BiQxrd6iPjPHOpa4%3DZ3futw%40mail.gmail.com ``` Dear Git developers, I'd like to understand what would be required to run `git blame` on individual characters instead of full lines. Could you please point me in the right direction? Someone asked a similar question about "Word-by-word blame/annotate" on StackOverflow a few years ago, and one of the replies said: > Git tracks changes snapshot by snapshot. The line-based format is calculated on-the-fly, and it would also be possible to have a word-based format. Source: https://stackoverflow.com/q/17758008/3461173 This leaves me hopeful that a character-based format can somehow be achieved. Here is a fake example to illustrate what I'm looking for: $ cat myscript.js for (int foo = 0; foo <= 11; foo++) { console.log(foo); } $ git blame --character-based --pseudo-json myscript.js [ { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", "characters": "for (int " }, { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", "characters": "foo" }, { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", "characters": " = 0; " }, { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", "characters": "foo" }, { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", "characters": " <= " }, { "commit": "cd1234ab", "summary": "Go up to 11", "characters": "11" }, { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", "characters": "; " }, { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", "characters": "foo" }, { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", "characters": "++) { console.log(" }, { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", "characters": "foo" }, { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", "characters": ")" }, { "commit": "d1234abc", "summary": "Add missing semicolon", "characters": ";" }, { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", "characters": " }" } ] What would be the most direct way to achieve such a character-based blame/annotate? Should I write some sort of Git extension, or hack into Git's source code? E.g. I looked for an option in `git-blame` or `git-annotate` to change the "next line boundary" from "carret return" (line-based blame) to "any whitespace" (word-based blame) or "character-by-character" (character-based blame), but I didn't find it. Could this be implemented in `blame.c`? If so, which methods would need tweaking? Many thanks! Jan ``` ## Christian Couder, 2018-03-27 06:01 Subject: Re: How to `git blame` individual characters? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAP8UFD3TPfWtpT8RLGBL2V%2BM%2BnkpGEYVa8Y_c68u4Lw4zPyW5g%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` Hi, On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 2:18 AM, Jan Keromnes wrote: > Dear Git developers, > > I'd like to understand what would be required to run `git blame` on > individual characters instead of full lines. Could you please point me > in the right direction? You might want to take a look at cregit (https://github.com/cregit/cregit) and maybe at other work from the people who developed it. There are links related to this tool in: https://git.github.io/rev_news/2017/05/17/edition-27/ > Someone asked a similar question about "Word-by-word blame/annotate" > on StackOverflow a few years ago, and one of the replies said: > >> Git tracks changes snapshot by snapshot. The line-based format is calculated on-the-fly, and it would also be possible to have a word-based format. > > Source: https://stackoverflow.com/q/17758008/3461173 > > This leaves me hopeful that a character-based format can somehow be > achieved. Here is a fake example to illustrate what I'm looking for: > > $ cat myscript.js > for (int foo = 0; foo <= 11; foo++) { console.log(foo); } > $ git blame --character-based --pseudo-json myscript.js > [ > { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", > "characters": "for (int " }, > { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", > "characters": "foo" }, > { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", > "characters": " = 0; " }, > { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", > "characters": "foo" }, > { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", > "characters": " <= " }, > { "commit": "cd1234ab", "summary": "Go up to 11", > "characters": "11" }, > { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", > "characters": "; " }, > { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", > "characters": "foo" }, > { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", > "characters": "++) { console.log(" }, > { "commit": "bcd1234a", "summary": "Rename iterator", > "characters": "foo" }, > { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", > "characters": ")" }, > { "commit": "d1234abc", "summary": "Add missing > semicolon", "characters": ";" }, > { "commit": "abcd1234", "summary": "Implement loop", > "characters": " }" } > ] > > What would be the most direct way to achieve such a character-based > blame/annotate? Should I write some sort of Git extension, or hack > into Git's source code? I think the "Token-based authorship information from Git" article (https://lwn.net/Articles/698425/) is about that. > E.g. I looked for an option in `git-blame` or `git-annotate` to change > the "next line boundary" from "carret return" (line-based blame) to > "any whitespace" (word-based blame) or "character-by-character" > (character-based blame), but I didn't find it. Could this be > implemented in `blame.c`? If so, which methods would need tweaking? I don't think this is implemented in Git. Do you really need that in git itself? ```