How to make git mark a deleted and a new file as a file move?

Git will automatically detect the move/rename if your modification is not too severe. Just git add the new file, and git rm the old file. git status will then show whether it has detected the rename.

additionally, for moves around directories, you may need to:

  1. cd to the top of that directory structure.
  2. Run git add -A .
  3. Run git status to verify that the "new file" is now a "renamed" file

If git status still shows "new file" and not "renamed" you need to follow Hank Gay’s advice and do the move and modify in two separate commits.


Do the move and the modify in separate commits.


It's all a perceptual thing. Git is generally rather good at recognising moves, because GIT is a content tracker

All that really depends is how your "stat" displays it. The only difference here is the -M flag.

git log --stat -M

commit 9c034a76d394352134ee2f4ede8a209ebec96288
Author: Kent Fredric
Date:   Fri Jan 9 22:13:51 2009 +1300


        Category Restructure

     lib/Gentoo/Repository.pm                |   10 +++++-----
     lib/Gentoo/{ => Repository}/Base.pm     |    2 +-
     lib/Gentoo/{ => Repository}/Category.pm |   12 ++++++------
     lib/Gentoo/{ => Repository}/Package.pm  |   10 +++++-----
     lib/Gentoo/{ => Repository}/Types.pm    |   10 +++++-----
     5 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

git log --stat

commit 9c034a76d394352134ee2f4ede8a209ebec96288
Author: Kent Fredric
Date:   Fri Jan 9 22:13:51 2009 +1300

    Category Restructure

 lib/Gentoo/Base.pm                |   36 ------------------------
 lib/Gentoo/Category.pm            |   51 ----------------------------------
 lib/Gentoo/Package.pm             |   41 ---------------------------
 lib/Gentoo/Repository.pm          |   10 +++---
 lib/Gentoo/Repository/Base.pm     |   36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/Gentoo/Repository/Category.pm |   51 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/Gentoo/Repository/Package.pm  |   41 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/Gentoo/Repository/Types.pm    |   55 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/Gentoo/Types.pm               |   55 -------------------------------------
 9 files changed, 188 insertions(+), 188 deletions(-)

git help log

   -M
       Detect renames.

   -C
       Detect copies as well as renames. See also --find-copies-harder.

Tags:

Git