Git: How to find a deleted file in the project commit history?

Question

Once upon a time, there was a file in my project that I would now like to be able to get.

The problem is: I have no idea of when have I deleted it and on which path it was.

How can I locate the commits of this file when it existed?

Answer 1

If you do not know the exact path you may use

git log --all --full-history -- "**/thefile.*"

If you know the path the file was at, you can do this:

git log --all --full-history -- <path-to-file>

This should show a list of commits in all branches which touched that file. Then, you can find the version of the file you want, and display it with...

git show <SHA> -- <path-to-file>

Or restore it into your working copy with:

git checkout <SHA>^ -- <path-to-file>

Note the caret symbol (^), which gets the checkout prior to the one identified, because at the moment of <SHA> commit the file is deleted, we need to look at the previous commit to get the deleted file's contents

Answer 2

Get a list of the deleted files and copy the full path of the deleted file

git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep delete

Execute the next command to find commit id of that commit and copy the commit id

git log --all -- FILEPATH

Show diff of deleted file

git show COMMIT_ID -- FILE_PATH

Remember, you can write output to a file using > like

git show COMMIT_ID -- FILE_PATH > deleted.diff

Answer 3

Suppose you want to recover a file called MyFile, but are uncertain of its path (or its extension, for that matter):

Preliminary: Avoid confusion by stepping to the git root

A nontrivial project may have multiple directories with similar or identical filenames.

> cd <project-root>

1. Find the full path

   git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep delete | grep MyFile

   delete mode 100644 full/path/to/MyFile.js

full/path/to/MyFile.js is the path & file you're seeking.

2. Determine all the commits that affected that file

   git log --oneline --follow -- full/path/to/MyFile.js

   bd8374c Some helpful commit message

   ba8d20e Another prior commit message affecting that file

   cfea812 The first message for a commit in which that file appeared.

3. Checkout the file

If you choose the first-listed commit (the last chronologically, here bd8374c), the file will not be found, since it was deleted in that commit.

> git checkout bd8374c -- full/path/to/MyFile.js

`error: pathspec 'full/path/to/MyFile.js' did not match any file(s) known to git.`

Just select the preceding (append a caret) commit:

> git checkout bd8374c^ -- full/path/to/MyFile.js

Answer 4

Could not edit the accepted response so adding it as an answer here,

to restore the file in git, use the following (note the '^' sign just after the SHA)

git checkout <SHA>^ -- /path/to/file

Answer 5

@Amber gave correct answer! Just one more addition, if you do not know the exact path of the file you can use wildcards! This worked for me.

git log --all -- **/thefile.*

Answer 6

Below is a simple command, where a dev or a git user can pass a deleted file name from the repository root directory and get the history:

git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep filename | awk '{print $4; exit}' | xargs git log --all -- 

If anybody, can improve the command, please do.

Answer 7

Try using one of the viewers, such as gitk so that you can browse around the history to find that half remembered file. (use gitk --all if needed for all branches)

Answer 8

Summary:

1. Step 1

You search your file full path in history of deleted files git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep filename

2. Step 2

You restore your file from commit before it was deleted

restore () {
  filepath="$@"
  last_commit=$(git log --all --full-history -- $filepath | grep commit | head -1 | awk '{print $2; exit}')
  echo "Restoring file from commit before $last_commit"
  git checkout $last_commit^ -- $filepath
}

restore my/file_path

Answer 9

Here is my solution:

git log --all --full-history --oneline -- <RELATIVE_FILE_PATH>
git checkout <COMMIT_SHA>^ -- <RELATIVE_FILE_PATH>

Answer 10

If you prefer to see the size of all deleted file

as well as the associated SHA

git log --all --stat --diff-filter=D --oneline

add a -p to see the contents too

git log --all --stat --diff-filter=D -p

To narrow down to any file simply pipe to grep and search for file name

git log --all --stat --diff-filter=D --oneline | grep someFileName

You might also like this one if you know where the file is

git log --all --full-history -- someFileName