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Git Forensics: Who Changed This Line, When Did It Appear, Follow Renames and Search History with -S and -G

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Self-Hosting & Infra intermediate 6 min read $0.01 Updated 2026-10-20

Tested on Git 2.34: blame on a renamed file, log --follow listing pre-rename commits, -S and -G pickaxe results, diff-filter for adds and deletes, log -L line history, rev-list counts, describe, name-status showing renames, and a shortlog gotcha that waits on stdin.

Answer "who changed this and why" from the command line: git blame for a line, log --follow across renames, -S and -G to find when text was added or removed, and --diff-filter to find deletions.

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#git#blame#history#debugging#log

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