Search code examples
githistorygit-svn

Keep git history when splitting a file

I want to take a function out of one file and put it into another, but keep the blame history.

cp a.php b.php

vim b.php
# delete everything but 1 function

vim a.php
# delete the 1 function

git add a.php b.php
git commit

But if I run git blame b.php I only see it blaming to this new commit.

Solution

  • Perhaps this previous SO question could be informative:

    How does git track source code moved between files?

    To paraphrase the accepted answer: essentially, Git doesn't actually "store" moved code; when generating things like blames for moved code, that's done ex post facto by examining the state of the entire repository from commit to commit.