View git history of specific line

You could use git log https://git-scm.com/docs/git-log

git log -L'the line from your file' -- path/to/your/file.txt

bomz gave the right option but with wrong syntax. Fixed line would look like this:

git log -L '/the line from your file/,+1:path/to/your/file.txt'

The meaning of argument to -L is "find the first occurrence of regex /the line from your file/, in path/to/your/file.txt and show the log regarding one line range starting at this point (meaning, just this line, but you could say +5 instead)".

The caveat is, if the line contains characters with special meaning in regex, you need to escape them.

However, it's likely much simpler to use line number, like this:

git log -L15,+1:'path/to/your/file.txt'

(for line 15 of file path/to/your/file.txt)

In both cases +1 can be replaced with bigger number to get more line, or with regex to match the end of selected range.

Detailed description from the docs:

-L <start>,<end>:<file>
-L :<funcname>:<file>

Trace the evolution of the line range given by "<start>,<end>" (or the function name regex <funcname>) within the <file>. You may not give any pathspec limiters. This is currently limited to a walk starting from a single revision, i.e., you may only give zero or one positive revision arguments. You can specify this option more than once.

<start> and <end> can take one of these forms:

• number

  If <start> or <end> is a number, it specifies an absolute line number (lines count from 1).

• /regex/

  This form will use the first line matching the given POSIX regex. If <start> is a regex, it will search from the end of the previous -L range, if any, otherwise from the start of file. If <start> is “^/regex/”, it will search from the start of file. If <end> is a regex, it will search starting at the line given by <start>.

• +offset or -offset

  This is only valid for <end> and will specify a number of lines before or after the line given by <start>.

If “:<funcname>” is given in place of <start> and <end>, it is a regular expression that denotes the range from the first funcname line that matches <funcname>, up to the next funcname line. “:<funcname>” searches from the end of the previous -L range, if any, otherwise from the start of file. “^:<funcname>” searches from the start of file.

The other answers here cover the question as asked very well, but sometimes you want to see this history for another branch without first checking out that branch.

git log branch-name -L '/regex/',+1:path/to/your/file.txt

works very well for these cases. Or you already know the line number:

git log branch-name -'L15,+1':'path/to/your/file.txt'