While renaming a file sometimes feels like "dropping its history", that is not true: Just use git log --follow on renamed files to access their full history.
Given a file "bar" that was previously named "foo":
touch foo
git add foo
git commit -m "Add foo"
mv foo bar
git add bar
git commit -m "Rename foo to bar"
git log bar
commit adc8e6a05b65355359c4e4618d6af0ed8f8b7f14 (HEAD -> git-follow)
Author: Michael Leimstaedtner <makmic@makandra.de>
Date: Wed May 12 08:49:37 2021 +0200
Rename foo to bar
git log --follow bar
commit adc8e6a05b65355359c4e4618d6af0ed8f8b7f14 (HEAD -> git-follow)
Author: Michael Leimstaedtner <makmic@makandra.de>
Date: Wed May 12 08:49:37 2021 +0200
Rename foo to bar
commit b2699e28d213cb610c016b0bc584d64a648735b1
Author: Michael Leimstaedtner <makmic@makandra.de>
Date: Wed May 12 08:48:58 2021 +0200
Add foo
The --follow option only works for single files.
Posted by Michael Leimstädtner to makandra dev (2021-05-12 06:43)