# git whatchanged deprecation

2 messages from 2025-11-23 to 2025-11-24. Participants: Daniel Hammer, Kristoffer Haugsbakk.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/64522

## Daniel Hammer, 2025-11-23 22:00

Subject: git whatchanged deprecation
Message-ID: <CALrqSpeAiSU5JtdePf1Haygd_a08AKu6iBrO-LZDjcW8KCqJLg@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CALrqSpeAiSU5JtdePf1Haygd_a08AKu6iBrO-LZDjcW8KCqJLg%40mail.gmail.com

```
Hi git devs,

Regarding:
> $ git whatchanged
> 'git whatchanged' is nominated for removal.
> If you still use this command, please add an extra
> option, '--i-still-use-this', on the command line
> and let us know you still use it by sending an e-mail
> to <git@vger.kernel.org>.  Thanks.
> fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this

I still use this, usually multiple times a day.


The flag approach seems unnecessarily heavy handed, when amending the
documentation would have sufficed.

As far as I can tell from the documentation, this is just shorthand
for a(nother) counter-intuitive git command.

Hope this DevEx regression is reversed ASAP.

Thanks in advance,

DH

```

## Kristoffer Haugsbakk, 2025-11-24 08:36

Subject: Re: git whatchanged deprecation
Message-ID: <26c59938-45b5-4dcf-924c-49a3d354126b@app.fastmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/26c59938-45b5-4dcf-924c-49a3d354126b%40app.fastmail.com
In-Reply-To: <CALrqSpeAiSU5JtdePf1Haygd_a08AKu6iBrO-LZDjcW8KCqJLg@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Sun, Nov 23, 2025, at 23:00, Daniel Hammer wrote:
> Regarding:
>> $ git whatchanged
>> 'git whatchanged' is nominated for removal.
>> If you still use this command, please add an extra
>> option, '--i-still-use-this', on the command line
>> and let us know you still use it by sending an e-mail
>> to <git@vger.kernel.org>.  Thanks.
>> fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this
>
> I still use this, usually multiple times a day.
>
>
> The flag approach seems unnecessarily heavy handed, when amending the
> documentation would have sufficed.

This was added to the documentation in 2013:

    New users are encouraged to use [git-log(1)] instead. ...

    The command is primarily kept for historical reasons; ...

The version you are on (2.51.0) finally said that it was deprecated.

The heavy-handed `--i-still-use-this` is meant to alert users (who may
not read the updated documentation) that the command is going away.

Breaking changes overall are documented in
https://git-scm.com/docs/BreakingChanges

> As far as I can tell from the documentation, this is just shorthand
> for a(nother) counter-intuitive git command.

Then you know that `git whatchanged` can be replaced with `git log
--raw`. Well, a closer equivalent is

    git log --raw --no-merges

But you can keep typing `git whatchanged` on Git versions 2.51.1,
2.51.2, and 2.52.0 by setting up an alias with that name:

    git config set --global alias.whatchanged 'log --raw --no-merges'

> Hope this DevEx regression is reversed ASAP.

That won’t happen.

```