threads / discuss / 64171

git whatchanged: fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this

Subject: git whatchanged: fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this

## tl;dr

4 messages between Sep 19, 2025 and Sep 22, 2025.

replies: 3people: 3as markdown or json

James Puleo· Sep 19, 2025, 19:24 UTC · lore

Hello World,

I have git version 2.51.0. I encountered today entirely on my own this fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this

Why I was using this command: There is a bit of code I wrote in a file since deleted (from the tree). I knew the path but not whichever ref last had the file I was looking for.

Having a file listing consisting of purely the file paths that have changed seems like a useful tool, that's all. If this isn't fueled by a technical challenge, I don't see a reason to make simple things have a difficult path.

Thank you.

Kristoffer Haugsbakk· Sep 19, 2025, 19:43 UTC · re: James Puleo · lore

Re: git whatchanged: fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this

Hi On Fri, Sep 19, 2025, at 21:24, James Puleo wrote:

Show 13 quoted lines

> Hello World,
>
> I have git version 2.51.0. I encountered today entirely on my own this
> fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this
>
> Why I was using this command: There is a bit of code I wrote in a file
> since deleted (from the tree). I knew the path but not whichever ref
> last had the file I was looking for.
>
> Having a file listing consisting of purely the file paths that have
> changed seems like a useful tool, that's all. If this isn't fueled by a
> technical challenge, I don't see a reason to make simple things have a
> difficult path.

This command is getting removed because it's been replaced by git-log. git-log can do evereything git-whatchanged can do and has better defaults "for humans". For example: --stat or --name-only which gives files-changed output without technical details like (I guess) filemode.

But you can keep the whatchanged behavior with

    git log --raw --no-merges

-- 
(sent from mobile—check option names
for me ;) )

Ben Knoble· Sep 20, 2025, 00:36 UTC · re: James Puleo · lore

Re: git whatchanged: fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this

Show 10 quoted lines

> Le 19 sept. 2025 à 16:00, James Puleo <james@jame.xyz> a écrit :
> 
> Hello World,
> 
> I have git version 2.51.0. I encountered today entirely on my own this
> fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this
> 
> Why I was using this command: There is a bit of code I wrote in a file
> since deleted (from the tree). I knew the path but not whichever ref
> last had the file I was looking for.

In that case:

   git log -- path/to/deleted/file

(or rev-list?) would get you there quickly.

Kristoffer Haugsbakk· Sep 22, 2025, 07:30 UTC · lore

Re: git whatchanged: fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this

On Mon, Sep 22, 2025, at 02:01, James wrote:

> Thank you for the (indeed correct) options. They are exactly what I am
> looking for.

Glad this could be resolved.

-- 
Kristoffer