#Git blame ignore whitespace how to
#Git blame ignore whitespace software
#Git blame ignore whitespace code
#Git blame ignore whitespace free

Be it that your team decided to agree on certain line endings, a large split of the codebase or a rename to align the codebase with the ubiquitous language. Whether you move forward or backward through history, there will always be the 'big bang' refactorings that get in your way. a refactoring that moved the keyword around), you are better of using the -G: git log -G'error.*' Skipping History If you're also looking for a commit that changed the position of a string (e.g. Luckily, git has us covered: you can use -pickaxe-regex and use -S to find matching commits.īe aware that using -S will only find commits that change the number of times a string is found (addition/deletion). Especially with error messages, you may be looking for an error message template that has variables in there. Pickaxe is part of git log can be used as follows: git log -S'errorMessage'īy default, it will spit out all commits that introduced or removed the string errorMessage in any way. One way to pick through the whole history in the search for the holy error message is to use git pickaxe. To dig into this, we'll have to find out when this error message got introduced.

#Git blame ignore whitespace code

On main, this error message is not present anymore as somebody refactored the code already. Let's say that we're working with a customer who sees a specific error message on an older version of our product. In case you're using Visual Studio Code, the excellent 'GitLense' extension offers similar commands:ĭepending on what we're looking for, we may not want to uncover commit by commit until we find the initial commit that introduced something. Similarly, IntelliJ-based IDEs allow you to do the same using 'Annotate Previous Revision': Looking at the history on GitHub, you can use the 'View blame prior to this change' feature: Luckily, this can also easily be achieved by the various editors by moving backward commit-wise. More often, we (as engineers) can easily gauge whether a commit is relevant for our search based on commit message, author, and coding practices. Usually, this allows to hide some of the more trivial commits but requires git to detect them as such.

#Git blame ignore whitespace free

Most of them are not only available on the command line though, they're usually available in the various editors as well (feel free to show how it's done in your editor and share on Twitter). Ignore changes if the line was just moved/copied from other files Ignore changes if the line was just moved/copied within the same file Assuming it's a simple move within the file or a whitespace fix, we can ignore those using the flags that git blame offer us: Moving Backwards In TimeĪ simple git blame shows us only the most recent changes. We need to carefully remove layer by layer of sand and dirt that has been swept over the real changes to unearth them. At first glance, we only see the most recent changes, not the most important ones. But on most non-trivial projects, you usually end up with a refactoring commit, a rename, or a trivial cross-project fix like switching to another assertion library. Most people will start with using 'git blame' (or the respective functionality within their IDE/editor). Usually, we resort to looking at the commit that introduced the change or the tickets associated with the commit. Tests usually provide a pretty good context but depending on their granularity and naming, they might only tell is 'what' is in the implementation but miss the 'why'.Īnd if we try to decide whether we can remove a certain check or rework a behavior, we need to understand why it was introduced in the first place.

#Git blame ignore whitespace software

As software engineers, we have to make so many micro-decisions every minute that we're pretty used to it.ĭepending on the code and domain knowledge, we often find ourselves in situations where we need more context to make an informed decision.

#Git blame ignore whitespace how to

Generally not dramatic, it happens quite often that I'm stopping what I'm doing because I need to decide on how to move forward. When working on refactorings or bug fixes, I often end up in areas I might not be too familiar with. Be it whether you're new to a codebase, or you've been focused on a specific area of the codebase. Working on a large codebase, it's pretty normal to not remember every small or large subsystem or implementation choice. He has been an active committer of the world-class Eclipse IDE (Platform, Java, Git).

Benny has been following his passion of building tools for improving developer productivity.