How can I view an old version of a file with Git

Question

Is there a command in Git to see  either dumped to stdout  or in  PAGER or  EDITOR  a particular version of a particular file

User · Answer

WAY 1   I prefer this way  no ability to lose uncommitted data   Find commit id with  git reflog  List files from commit git diff-tree --no-commit-id --name-only -r  lt commitHash gt  Example   git diff-tree --no-commit-id --name-only -r d2f9ba4 d2f9ba4 is commit id from step 1    Open required file with following command  git show  lt commitHash gt   path to file Example   git show d2f9ba4 Src Ext MoreSwiftUI ListCustom swift Src     is file path from step 2      WAY 2   Ability to lose uncommitted data   Find commit id with  git reflog  Make hard reset to this commit   git reset --hard  commit ID  Example    git reset --hard c14809fa   Make necessary changes and do a new commit into required branch

User · Answer

If you like GUIs  you can use gitk    start gitk with   gitk  path to file  Choose the revision in the top part of the screen  e g  by description or date  By default  the lower part of the screen shows the diff for that revision   corresponding to the  patch  radio button   To see the file for the selected revision    Click on the  tree  radio button  This will show the root of the file tree at that revision  Drill down to your file

User · Answer

You can use git show with a path from the root of the repository     or     for relative pathing      git show REVISION path to file   Replace REVISION with your actual revision  could be a Git commit SHA  a tag name  a branch name  a relative commit name  or any other way of identifying a commit in Git   For example  to view the version of file  lt repository-root gt  src main c from 4 commits ago  use     git show HEAD 4 src main c   Git for Windows requires forward slashes even in paths relative to the current directory   For more information  check out the man page for git-show

User · Answer

You can use git show with a path from the root of the repository     or     for relative pathing      git show REVISION path to file   Replace REVISION with your actual revision  could be a Git commit SHA  a tag name  a branch name  a relative commit name  or any other way of identifying a commit in Git   For example  to view the version of file  lt repository-root gt  src main c from 4 commits ago  use     git show HEAD 4 src main c   Git for Windows requires forward slashes even in paths relative to the current directory   For more information  check out the man page for git-show

User · Answer

Helper to fetch multiple files from a given revision  When trying to resolve merge conflicts  this helper is very useful      usr bin env python3  import argparse import os import subprocess  parser   argparse ArgumentParser   parser add argument  revision   parser add argument  files   nargs      args   parser parse args   toplevel   subprocess check output   git    rev-parse    --show-toplevel    rstrip   decode   for path in args files      file relative   os path relpath os path abspath path   toplevel      base  ext   os path splitext path      new path   base     old    ext     with open new path   w   as f          subprocess call   git    show             format args revision  path    stdout f    GitHub upstream   Usage   git-show-save other-branch file1 c path to file2 cpp   Outcome  the following contain the alternate versions of the files   file1 old c path to file2 old cpp   This way  you keep the file extension so your editor won t complain  and can easily find the old file just next to the newer one

User · Answer

You can also specify a commit hash  often also called commit ID  with the git show command   In a nutshell git show  lt commitHash gt   path to file  Step by step  Show the log of all the changes for a given file with git log  path to file In the list of changes shown  it shows the commit hash such as commit 06c98     06c98    being the commit hash  Copy the commit hash Run the command git show  lt commitHash gt   path to file using the commit hashof step 3  amp  the path to file of step 1   Note  adding the    when specifying a relative path seems important  i e  git show b2f8be577166577c59b55e11cfff1404baf63a84   flight-simulation src main components nav-horiz html

User · Answer

git log -p will show you not just the commit logs but also the diff of each commit  except merge commits   Then you can press    enter filename and press enter  Press n or p to go to the next previous occurrence  This way you will not just see the changes in the file but also the commit information

User · Answer

If you like GUIs  you can use gitk    start gitk with   gitk  path to file  Choose the revision in the top part of the screen  e g  by description or date  By default  the lower part of the screen shows the diff for that revision   corresponding to the  patch  radio button   To see the file for the selected revision    Click on the  tree  radio button  This will show the root of the file tree at that revision  Drill down to your file

User · Answer

You can use a script like this to dump all the versions of a file to separate files   e g   git dump all versions of a file sh path to somefile txt   Get the script here as an answer to another similar question

User · Answer

You can use git show with a path from the root of the repository     or     for relative pathing      git show REVISION path to file   Replace REVISION with your actual revision  could be a Git commit SHA  a tag name  a branch name  a relative commit name  or any other way of identifying a commit in Git   For example  to view the version of file  lt repository-root gt  src main c from 4 commits ago  use     git show HEAD 4 src main c   Git for Windows requires forward slashes even in paths relative to the current directory   For more information  check out the man page for git-show

User · Answer

You can also specify a commit hash  often also called commit ID  with the git show command   In a nutshell git show  lt commitHash gt   path to file  Step by step  Show the log of all the changes for a given file with git log  path to file In the list of changes shown  it shows the commit hash such as commit 06c98     06c98    being the commit hash  Copy the commit hash Run the command git show  lt commitHash gt   path to file using the commit hashof step 3  amp  the path to file of step 1   Note  adding the    when specifying a relative path seems important  i e  git show b2f8be577166577c59b55e11cfff1404baf63a84   flight-simulation src main components nav-horiz html

User · Answer

Doing this by date looks like this if the commit happened within the last 90 days  git show HEAD  2013-02-25    fileInCurrentDirectory txt  Note that HEAD  2013-02-25  means  quot where HEAD was on 2013-02-25 quot  in this repository  using the reflog   not  quot the last commit before 2013-02-25 in this branch in history quot   This is important  It means that  by default  this method only works for history within the last 90 days  Otherwise  you need to do this  git show   git rev-list -1 --before  quot 2013-02-26 quot  HEAD    fileInCurrentDirectory txt

User · Answer

You can use git show with a path from the root of the repository     or     for relative pathing      git show REVISION path to file   Replace REVISION with your actual revision  could be a Git commit SHA  a tag name  a branch name  a relative commit name  or any other way of identifying a commit in Git   For example  to view the version of file  lt repository-root gt  src main c from 4 commits ago  use     git show HEAD 4 src main c   Git for Windows requires forward slashes even in paths relative to the current directory   For more information  check out the man page for git-show

User · Answer

Helper to fetch multiple files from a given revision  When trying to resolve merge conflicts  this helper is very useful      usr bin env python3  import argparse import os import subprocess  parser   argparse ArgumentParser   parser add argument  revision   parser add argument  files   nargs      args   parser parse args   toplevel   subprocess check output   git    rev-parse    --show-toplevel    rstrip   decode   for path in args files      file relative   os path relpath os path abspath path   toplevel      base  ext   os path splitext path      new path   base     old    ext     with open new path   w   as f          subprocess call   git    show             format args revision  path    stdout f    GitHub upstream   Usage   git-show-save other-branch file1 c path to file2 cpp   Outcome  the following contain the alternate versions of the files   file1 old c path to file2 old cpp   This way  you keep the file extension so your editor won t complain  and can easily find the old file just next to the newer one

User · Answer

git log -p will show you not just the commit logs but also the diff of each commit  except merge commits   Then you can press    enter filename and press enter  Press n or p to go to the next previous occurrence  This way you will not just see the changes in the file but also the commit information

User · Answer

WAY 1   I prefer this way  no ability to lose uncommitted data   Find commit id with  git reflog  List files from commit git diff-tree --no-commit-id --name-only -r  lt commitHash gt  Example   git diff-tree --no-commit-id --name-only -r d2f9ba4 d2f9ba4 is commit id from step 1    Open required file with following command  git show  lt commitHash gt   path to file Example   git show d2f9ba4 Src Ext MoreSwiftUI ListCustom swift Src     is file path from step 2      WAY 2   Ability to lose uncommitted data   Find commit id with  git reflog  Make hard reset to this commit   git reset --hard  commit ID  Example    git reset --hard c14809fa   Make necessary changes and do a new commit into required branch

User · Answer

In addition to Jim Hunziker s answer   you can export the file from the revision as   git show HEAD  2013-02-25    fileInCurrentDirectory txt  gt  old fileInCurrentDirectory txt   Hope this helps

User · Answer

In addition to Jim Hunziker s answer   you can export the file from the revision as   git show HEAD  2013-02-25    fileInCurrentDirectory txt  gt  old fileInCurrentDirectory txt   Hope this helps

User · Answer

To quickly see the differences with older revisions of a file      git show -1 filename txt   to compare against the last revision of file      git show -2 filename txt    to compare against the 2nd last revision      git show -3 fielname txt    to compare against the last 3rd last revision

User · Answer

You can use a script like this to dump all the versions of a file to separate files   e g   git dump all versions of a file sh path to somefile txt   Get the script here as an answer to another similar question

User · Answer

Doing this by date looks like this if the commit happened within the last 90 days  git show HEAD  2013-02-25    fileInCurrentDirectory txt  Note that HEAD  2013-02-25  means  quot where HEAD was on 2013-02-25 quot  in this repository  using the reflog   not  quot the last commit before 2013-02-25 in this branch in history quot   This is important  It means that  by default  this method only works for history within the last 90 days  Otherwise  you need to do this  git show   git rev-list -1 --before  quot 2013-02-26 quot  HEAD    fileInCurrentDirectory txt

User · Answer

To quickly see the differences with older revisions of a file      git show -1 filename txt   to compare against the last revision of file      git show -2 filename txt    to compare against the 2nd last revision      git show -3 fielname txt    to compare against the last 3rd last revision

[git] How can I view an old version of a file with Git?

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