What's the purpose of git-mv?

git mv oldname newname

is just shorthand for:

mv oldname newname
git add newname
git rm oldname

i.e. it updates the index for both old and new paths automatically.

From the official GitFaq:

Git has a rename command git mv, but that is just a convenience. The effect is indistinguishable from removing the file and adding another with different name and the same content

Git is just trying to guess for you what you are trying to do. It is making every attempt to preserve unbroken history. Of course, it is not perfect. So git mv allows you to be explicit with your intention and to avoid some errors.

Consider this example. Starting with an empty repo,

git init
echo "First" >a
echo "Second" >b
git add *
git commit -m "initial commit"
mv a c
mv b a
git status

Result:

# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   modified:   a
#   deleted:    b
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   c
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

Autodetection failed :( Or did it?

$ git add *
$ git commit -m "change"
$ git log c

commit 0c5425be1121c20cc45df04734398dfbac689c39
Author: Sergey Orshanskiy <*****@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Oct 12 00:24:56 2013 -0400

    change

and then

$ git log --follow c

Author: Sergey Orshanskiy <*****@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Oct 12 00:24:56 2013 -0400

    change

commit 50c2a4604a27be2a1f4b95399d5e0f96c3dbf70a
Author: Sergey Orshanskiy <*****@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Oct 12 00:24:45 2013 -0400

    initial commit

Now try instead (remember to delete the .git folder when experimenting):

git init
echo "First" >a
echo "Second" >b
git add *
git commit -m "initial commit"
git mv a c
git status

So far so good:

# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   renamed:    a -> c


git mv b a
git status

Now, nobody is perfect:

# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   modified:   a
#   deleted:    b
#   new file:   c
#

Really? But of course...

git add *
git commit -m "change"
git log c
git log --follow c

...and the result is the same as above: only --follow shows the full history.

---

Now, be careful with renaming, as either option can still produce weird effects. Example:

git init
echo "First" >a
git add a
git commit -m "initial a"
echo "Second" >b
git add b
git commit -m "initial b"

git mv a c
git commit -m "first move"
git mv b a
git commit -m "second move"

git log --follow a

commit 81b80f5690deec1864ebff294f875980216a059d
Author: Sergey Orshanskiy <*****@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Oct 12 00:35:58 2013 -0400

    second move

commit f284fba9dc8455295b1abdaae9cc6ee941b66e7f
Author: Sergey Orshanskiy <*****@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Oct 12 00:34:54 2013 -0400

    initial b

Contrast it with:

git init
echo "First" >a
git add a
git commit -m "initial a"
echo "Second" >b
git add b
git commit -m "initial b"

git mv a c
git mv b a
git commit -m "both moves at the same time"

git log --follow a

Result:

commit 84bf29b01f32ea6b746857e0d8401654c4413ecd
Author: Sergey Orshanskiy <*****@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Oct 12 00:37:13 2013 -0400

    both moves at the same time

commit ec0de3c5358758ffda462913f6e6294731400455
Author: Sergey Orshanskiy <*****@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Oct 12 00:36:52 2013 -0400

    initial a

Ups... Now the history is going back to initial a instead of initial b, which is wrong. So when we did two moves at a time, Git became confused and did not track the changes properly. By the way, in my experiments the same happened when I deleted/created files instead of using git mv. Proceed with care; you've been warned...