How can I move all git content one-level up in the folder hierarchy?

Question

I have a git repository whose structure looks like:

+--repo.git
|
+----+bootstrap.py
+----+buildout.cfg
+----+.gitignore
+----+webapp
|
+---------+manage.py
         


        

Answer 1

The solution you mentioned should work, as git tracks changes based on the hash of the files first and then their location.

This wont work if as part of moving the file, you change the contents of the files.

Bottom case, try it, and if it doesn't work, you can revert the changes, before pushing the changes to the master repo :). This is one of the reasons why I really like git.

Edit

I forgot to mention that to see the changes after a rename, you need to use the '--follow' parameter. Check this example

First, I created a new git repo

94:workspace augusto$ mkdir gittest
94:workspace augusto$ cd gittest/
94:gittest augusto$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /Volumes/Data/dev/workspace/gittest/.git/

Then created a file in folder/test

94:gittest augusto$ mkdir folder
94:gittest augusto$ vi folder/test
94:gittest augusto$ git add folder/test
94:gittest augusto$ git commit -am "added file"
[master (root-commit) 7128f82] added file
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 folder/test

Then moved the file to newfolder/test

94:gittest augusto$ mkdir newfolder
94:gittest augusto$ mv folder/test newfolder/
94:gittest augusto$ git add newfolder/test 
94:gittest augusto$ git commit -am "moved/renamed file"
[master 4da41f5] moved/renamed file
 1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 rename {folder => newfolder}/test (100%)

And git log --follow newfolder/test shows the full history (I've added the parameter -p to show more information, such as the path).

94:gittest augusto$ git log --follow -p newfolder/test 
commit 4da41f5868ab12146e11820d9813e5a2ac29a591
Author: Augusto Rodriguez 
Date:   Sat Aug 20 18:20:37 2011 +0100

    moved/renamed file

diff --git a/folder/test b/newfolder/test
similarity index 100%
rename from folder/test
rename to newfolder/test

commit 7128f8232be45fd76616f88d7e164a840e1917d5
Author: Augusto Rodriguez 
Date:   Sat Aug 20 18:19:58 2011 +0100

    added file

diff --git a/folder/test b/folder/test
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b2aed8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/folder/test
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+this is a new file

I hope this helps!