Handling file renames in git

Question

I d read that when renaming files in git  you should commit any changes  perform your rename and then stage your renamed file  Git will recognise the file from the contents  rather than seeing it as a new untracked file  and keep the change history   However  doing just this tonight I ended up reverting to git mv    gt    git status   On branch master   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage        modified    index html     Rename my stylesheet in Finder from iphone css to mobile css   gt    git status   On branch master   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage        modified    index html     Changed but not updated       use  git add rm  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory        deleted     css iphone css     Untracked files       use  git add  lt file gt      to include in what will be committed        css mobile css   So git now thinks I ve deleted one CSS file  and added a new one  Not what I want  lets undo the rename and let git do the work    gt    git reset HEAD   Unstaged changes after reset  M   css iphone css M   index html   Back to where I began    gt    git status   On branch master   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage        modified    index html     Lets use git mv instead    gt    git mv css iphone css css mobile css  gt    git status   On branch master   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage        renamed     css iphone css - gt  css mobile css     Changed but not updated       use  git add  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory        modified    index html     Looks like we re good  So why didn t git recognise the rename the first time around when I used Finder

User · Answer

For git 1 7 x the following commands worked for me   git mv css iphone css css mobile css git commit -m  Rename folder      There was no need for git add  since the original file  i e  css mobile css  was already in the committed files previously

User · Answer

Best thing is to try it for yourself   mkdir test cd test git init touch aaa txt git add   git commit -a -m  New file  mv aaa txt bbb txt git add   git status git commit --dry-run -a   Now git status and git commit --dry-run -a shows two different results where git status shows bbb txt as a new file  aaa txt is deleted  and the --dry-run commands shows the actual rename     test  git status    On branch master   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage        new file    bbb txt     Changes not staged for commit       use  git add rm  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory        deleted     aaa txt      test  git commit --dry-run -a    On branch master   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage        renamed     aaa txt - gt  bbb txt     Now go ahead and do the check-in   git commit -a -m  Rename    Now you can see that the file is in fact renamed  and what s shown in git status is wrong    Moral of the story  If you re not sure whether your file got renamed  issue a  git commit --dry-run -a   If its showing that the file is renamed  you re good to go

User · Answer

In cases where you really have to rename the files manually  for eg  using a script to batch rename a bunch of files  then using git add -A   worked for me

User · Answer

Just ran into this issue - if you updated a bunch of files and don t want to do git mv all of them this also works   Rename parent directory from  dir RenamedFile js to  whatever RenamedFile js  git add -A to stage that change Rename parent directory back to  dir RenamedFile js  git add -A again  will re-stage vs that change  forcing git to pick up the filename change

User · Answer

you have to git add css mobile css the new file and git rm css iphone css  so git knows about it  then it will show the same output in git status  you can see it clearly in the status output  the new name of the file      Untracked files       use  git add  lt file gt      to include in what will be committed    and  the old name      Changed but not updated       use  git add rm  lt file gt      to update what will be committed    i think behind the scenes git mv is nothing more than a wrapper script which does exactly that  delete the file from the index and add it under a different name

User · Answer

Git will recognise the file from the contents  rather than seeing it as a new untracked file   That s where you went wrong   It s only after you add the file  that git will recognize it from content

User · Answer

You didn t stage the results of your finder move  I believe if you did the move via Finder and then did git add css mobile css   git rm css iphone css  git would compute the hash of the new file and only then realize that the hashes of the files match  and thus it s a rename

User · Answer

For Xcode users  If your rename your file in Xcode you see the badge icon change to append  If you do a commit using XCode you will actually create a new file and lose the history   A workaround is easy but you have to do it before commiting using Xcode    Do a git Status on your folder  You should see that the staged changes are correct     renamed     Project OldName h -  Project NewName h renamed     Project OldName m -  Project NewName m   do commit -m  name change    Then go back to XCode and you will see the badge changed from A to M and it is save to commit furtur changes in using xcode now

User · Answer

You have to add the two modified files to the index before git will recognize it as a move   The only difference between mv old new and git mv old new is that the git mv also adds the files to the index   mv old new then git add -A would have worked  too   Note that you can t just use git add   because that doesn t add removals to the index   See Difference between  quot git add -A quot  and  quot git add   quot

User · Answer

Step1  rename the file from oldfile to newfile  git mv  oldfile  newfile   Step2  git commit and add comments  git commit -m  rename oldfile to newfile    Step3  push this change to remote sever   git push origin  localbranch  remotebranch

User · Answer

For git mv the manual page says     The index is updated after successful completion            So  at first  you have to update the index on your own  by using git add mobile css   However git status will still show two different files    git status   On branch master warning  LF will be replaced by CRLF in index html   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage            modified    index html         new file    mobile css     Changed but not updated       use  git add rm  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory            deleted     iphone css     You can get a different output by running git commit --dry-run -a  which results in what you expect   Tanascius H181  d temp blo  master    git commit --dry-run -a   On branch master warning  LF will be replaced by CRLF in index html   Changes to be committed       use  git reset HEAD  lt file gt      to unstage            modified    index html         renamed     iphone css - gt  mobile css     I can t tell you exactly why we see these differences between git status and git commit --dry-run -a  but here is a hint from Linus      git really doesn t even care about the whole    rename detection  internally  and any commits you have   done with renames are totally independent of the   heuristics we then use to show the renames    A dry-run uses the real renaming mechanisms  while a git status probably doesn t

User · Answer

Let s think about your files from git perspective      Keep in mind git doesn t track any metadata about your files   Your repository has  among others     cd repo   ls     iphone css       and it is under git control     git ls-files --error-unmatch iphone css  amp  gt  dev null  amp  amp  echo file is tracked file is tracked   Test this with     touch newfile   git ls-files --error-unmatch newfile  amp  gt  dev null  amp  amp  echo file is tracked  no output  it is not tracked    rm newfile   When you do    mv iphone css mobile css   From git perspective    there is no iphone css  it is deleted -git warns about that-   there is a new file mobile css  Those files are totally unrelated    So  git advises about files it already knows  iphone css  and new files it detects  mobile css  but only when files are in index or HEAD git starts to check their contents   At this moment  neither  iphone css deletion  nor mobile css are on index   Add iphone css deletion to index    git rm iphone css   git tells you exactly what has happened   iphone css is deleted  Nothing more happened   then add new file mobile css    git add mobile css   This time both deletion and new file are on index  Now git detects context are the same and expose it as a rename  In fact if files are 50  similar it will detect that as a rename  that let you change mobile css a bit while keeping the operation as a rename   See this is reproducible on git diff  Now that your files are on index you must use --cached  Edit mobile css a bit  add that to index and see the difference between     git diff --cached    and    git diff --cached -M   -M is the  detect renames  option for git diff  -M stands for -M50   50  or more similarity will make git express it as a rename  but you can reduce this to -M20   20   if you edit mobile css a lot

[git] Handling file renames in git

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