Yes, I know Linus specifically doesn't store file rename info in Git.
The trouble is, every now and then, I'll come across a situation where
Git doesn't successfully detect that I've renamed a file because I'm
doing something like renaming a class at the same time. So I'll have
a file OldClassNameTests.cs and a NewClassNameTests.cs but a bunch of
lines in that file have also changed from OldClassName.DoThing() to
NewClassName.DoThing(). I can clearly see that this is a rename, but
Git sees enough changed content that it doesn't realize it, and puts
it in as a delete/add, losing the content history.
The standard answer for this is to rename the file in one commit, then
make the changes. That's fine if you know ahead of time you'll want
to do this. However it's a total PITA if you have a bunch of changes
and you realize that a rename has caused this problem. You now have
to back out your changes to the renamed file, add the rename, commit
it, then re-apply the changes.
Could a command be added to git that means you tell Git that counts as
a file rename? Git would add a marker to the staging area that the
file has been renamed, and upon commit, would first generate an
additional commit for each rename before generating the main commit,
ensuring the rename operation counts as an actual rename, and the
content's history is maintained.
--
Best regards,
Jeremy Morton (Jez)
