Is it possible to move/rename files in Git and maintain their history?

Question

I would like to rename/move a project subtree in Git moving it from

/project/xyz

to

/components/xyz

If I

Answer 1

Git detects renames rather than persisting the operation with the commit, so whether you use git mv or mv doesn't matter.

The log command takes a --follow argument that continues history before a rename operation, i.e., it searches for similar content using the heuristics:

http://git-scm.com/docs/git-log

To lookup the full history, use the following command:

git log --follow ./path/to/file