Step through a file's history in git; similar to p4v timelapse
gitk -- filename
should do what you want, if you kick up the lines of context in the middle, and scroll up and down through the revisions.
Tig, a text mode interface for git, offers a blame view that offers some of this functionality:
- Step backwards in time to the commit of a given line (b key).
- Step backwards to the parent commit of a given line (, key).
- Returning forwards in time to a view you were at previously (< key).
It does not preserve the viewing location when stepping to a parent commit (it seems to when using the line's commit).
Here is a Git Time-Lapse View tool that I have written in Java:
https://github.com/JonathanAquino/git-time-lapse-view