View a file's history in Magit?

Question

View the change history of a file using Git versioning talks about other ways of viewing history of a file in Git.

Can it be done in Emacs Magit?

Answer 1

Since magit 2.1: magit-log-buffer-file (as per comment below)

Before magit 2.1: magit-file-log is what you are looking for. It will show you all commits for the file in the current buffer in the standard magit log view.

Answer 2

Open your magit-status buffer, by typing M-x magit-status (I used to have this bound to C-. C-g because it is used all the time. These days, I use Spacemacs so it's <SPC> g s)

1. Type l to get log viewing option
2. Type =f to set the "Limit to files" option
3. Enter the file path you wish to view history for
4. Type l to view the log of the current branch

If you're using Spacemacs, you can get the history of the currently visited file using <SPC> g f h

Answer 3

In your *magit: <project>* buffer use l to go into logging mode, then press f to be prompted for a filename.

Answer 4

I do not know a way. I simply use M-x vc-print-log which seems to accomplish the same feat. It is not a magit-integrated way, though.

Answer 5

If magit (user manual) doesn't have that feature, then you can have a look at other Emacs mode, and add you own git-log-file function:

(defun git-log-file ()
  "Display a log of changes to the marked file(s)."
  (interactive)
  (let* ((files (git-marked-files))
         (buffer (apply #'git-run-command-buffer "*git-log*" "git-rev-list" \
"--pretty" "HEAD" "--" (git-get-filenames files))))  (with-current-buffer buffer
      ; (git-log-mode)  FIXME: implement log mode
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (setq buffer-read-only t))
    (display-buffer buffer)))