how can I list all the different versions of a file, and diff them also?

Question

using git, I want to list all the different revisions of a given file.

Then, I want to choose a particular version and compare it when another.

How can I do

Answer 1

You can use a script like this to dump all the versions of a file to a separate file:

e.g.

git_all_versions_of path/to/somefile.txt

It will generate a bunch of files in the same folder as the original file, named like the following, with the most recent change postfixed with "1". Note that it will also dump another file ending in .logmsg that has the log message of the commit as well.

path/to/somefile.txt.1.0dea419
path/to/somefile.txt.1.0dea419.logmsg
path/to/somefile.txt.2.cdea8s9
path/to/somefile.txt.2.cdea8s9.logmsg
path/to/somefile.txt.3.fdsf2d
path/to/somefile.txt.3.fdsf2d.logmsg
etc...

After I've dumped all the files, I just run a grep -r DELETED_METHOD_NAME somefile.txt.* to find what I'm looking for.

git_all_versions_of

#!/bin/sh
if [ "$#" -ne 1 ] || [ "$1" == "help" ]
then
  echo "dump all git versions of a file to separate files"
  echo 
  echo "usage: $0 FILENAME";
  echo 
  echo "e.g."
  echo 
  echo "$ $0 path/to/somefile.txt"
  echo 
  echo "path/to/somefile.txt.1.0dea419"
  echo "path/to/somefile.txt.1.0dea419.logmsg"
  echo "path/to/somefile.txt.2.cdea8s9"
  echo "path/to/somefile.txt.2.cdea8s9.logmsg"
  echo "path/to/somefile.txt.3.fdsf2d"
  echo "path/to/somefile.txt.3.fdsf2d.logmsg"
  echo "..."
  exit 1
fi

index=1
for commit in $(git log --pretty=format:%h "$1")
do
  padindex=$(printf %03d "$index")
  out="$1.$padindex.$commit"
  log="$out.logmsg"
  echo "saving version $index to file $out for commit $commit"
  echo "*******************************************************" > "$log"
  git log -1 --pretty=format:"%s%nAuthored by %an at %ai%n%n%b%n" "$commit" >> "$log"
  echo "*******************************************************" >> "$log"
  git show "$commit:./$1" > "$out"
  let index++
done