Chapter 42: Blaming

Section 42.1: Only show certain lines

Output can be restricted by specifying line ranges as

git blame -L <start>,<end>

Where <start> and <end> can be:

• line number

Example:

git blame -L 10,30

• /regex/

Example:

git blame -L /void main/, git blame -L 46,/void foo/

• +offset, -offset (only for <end>)

Example:

git blame -L 108,+30, git blame -L 215,-15

Multiple line ranges can be specified, and overlapping ranges are allowed.

Example:

git blame -L 10,30 -L 12,80 -L 120,+10 -L ^/void main/,+40

Section 42.2: To find out who changed a file

Shows the author and commit per line of specified file

git blame test.c

Shows the author email and commit per line of specified file

git blame -e test.c

Limits the selection of lines by specified range

git blame -L 1,10 test.c

Section 42.3: Show the commit that last modified a line

git blame <

Will show the file with each line annotated with the commit that last modified it.

Section 42.4: Ignore whitespace-only changes

Sometimes repos will have commits that only adjust whitespace, for example fixing indentation or switching between tabs and spaces. This makes it difficult to find the commit where the code was actually written.

git blame -w

Will ignore whitespace-only changes to find where the line really came from.