# Could git status know about -M ?

2 messages from 2007-03-30 to 2007-03-30. Participants: Olivier Galibert, Jeff King.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/7479

## Olivier Galibert, 2007-03-30 00:09

Subject: Could git status know about -M ?
Message-ID: <20070330000949.GB41089@dspnet.fr.eu.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20070330000949.GB41089%40dspnet.fr.eu.org

```
Right now git status shows renames only if the deleted file is
strictly identical to the added file.  If you do an even minor
modification (say, change a "" include to a <> one) it becomes a
del/add pair which is way less readable.  Easily fixable?

  OG.

```

## Jeff King, 2007-03-30 04:19

Subject: Re: Could git status know about -M ?
Message-ID: <20070330041923.GA9320@coredump.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20070330041923.GA9320%40coredump.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <20070330000949.GB41089@dspnet.fr.eu.org>

```
On Fri, Mar 30, 2007 at 02:09:49AM +0200, Olivier Galibert wrote:

> Right now git status shows renames only if the deleted file is
> strictly identical to the added file.  If you do an even minor
> modification (say, change a "" include to a <> one) it becomes a
> del/add pair which is way less readable.  Easily fixable?

It uses the same rename detection as git-diff, which computes a
similarity score. For example, try this:

  $ git init
  $ head -n 1000 /usr/share/dict/words >foo
  $ git-add foo; git-commit -m 'added file'
  $ git-mv foo bar
  $ git-status ;# shows rename because files are identical
  $ echo changes >>bar; git-add bar
  $ git-status ;# still shows rename because files are similar
  $ echo rewrite >bar; git-add bar
  $ git-status ;# now files are too dissimilar to find rename

My guess is that your changes, even though they seem small, or
preventing the rename detection from working.  If you have a very small
file, even a few changes can make the files too dissimilar.

-Peff

```