Add List All Commits Where File Was Added Or Deleted as a Git TIL

git/list-all-commits-where-file-was-added-or-deleted.md

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+# List All Commits Where File Was Added Or Deleted
+
+I noticed I wasn't able to find a file with a specific name anywhere in my
+codebase. I expected it to be there, so I wondered when it had been added and
+deleted from the codebase according to the git commit history.
+
+This calls for running a `git log`, but with a couple flags. First, I'll include
+`--name-status` so that each commit that is listed includes the file names with
+the change status (i.e. `A` for added and `D` for deleted). Then the
+`--diff-filter` flag tells git that I am only looking for `A`dded and `D`eleted
+files. Then the `--` indicates that a file path will follow, even a regex
+pattern is valid here.
+
+```bash
+git log --name-status --diff-filter=AD -- '*_mock_payment_form.*'
+```
+
+I'm looking for what is called a _partial_ in Rails. I know the filename
+consists of `_mock_payment_form`. The leading `*` is so that I can be vague
+about the directory this might be found in. That's useful if this file was
+potentially moved around. The trailing `.*` indicates the file extension which I
+also want to be vague about.
+
+For any of the commits returned by this `git log`, I can grab the SHA and run
+`git show <SHA>` to see the full picture of that commit.
+
+Another flag that might be useful to add is the `--all` flag which will look
+across all refs/branches instead of just the branch (`main`) that I'm currently
+on.
+
+```bash
+git log --all --name-status --diff-filter=AD -- '*_mock_payment_form.*'
+```
+
+Perhaps I'm thinking of a file that was added on an abandoned feature branch.
+`--all` will help turn up that in the results as well.