I still heavily use git whatchanged after more than 10 years
2 messages between Apr 16, 2026 and Apr 16, 2026, from Chester, Junio C Hamano.
Plain Markdown or JSON for tools and agents.
Dear Git developers,
I saw the message that git whatchanged is now nominated for removal and requires the --i-still-use-this flag.
I want to let you know that I have been using git whatchanged for more than ten years, and I still use it very frequently in my daily workflow.
It has become a muscle-memory command for me, and I find the combination of showing the log with raw diffs (while skipping merges by default) very convenient.
I understand that it can be replaced with git log --raw --no-merges, but after so many years, git whatchanged just feels more natural and quicker to type for my use case.
Thank you for maintaining Git and for reaching out to users before removing long-standing commands.
Best regards, Chester
Re: I still heavily use git whatchanged after more than 10 years
Chester <just13.0818@gmail.com> writes:
> Dear Git developers,
>
> I saw the message that git whatchanged is now nominated for removal
> and requires the --i-still-use-this flag.
You should have seen:
$ git whatchanged
'git whatchanged' is nominated for removal. hint: You can replace 'git whatchanged <opts>' with:
hint: git log <opts> --raw --no-merges
hint: Or make an alias:
hint: git config set --global alias.whatchanged 'log --raw --no-merges' If you still use this command, here's what you can do:
- read https://git-scm.com/docs/BreakingChanges.html
- check if anyone has discussed this on the mailing
list and if they came up with something that can
help you: https://lore.kernel.org/git/?q=git%20whatchanged
- send an email to <git@vger.kernel.org> to let us
know that you still use this command and were unable
to determine a suitable replacement fatal: refusing to run without --i-still-use-this
> I understand that it can be replaced with git log --raw --no-merges,
> but after so many years, git whatchanged just feels more natural and
> quicker to type for my use case.
You are asked to send a message to this list whene you were unable to determine a suitable replacement, but it is hard to believe that is the case with your use case.
The "alias" hint above seems to give exactly the suitable replacement to help folks who cannot adjust due to the muscle memory.