Can Git really track the movement of a single function from 1 file to another? If so, how?

Question

Several times, I have come across the statement that, if you move a single function from one file to another file, Git can track it. For example, this entry says, \"Linus sa

Answer 1

As of Git 2.15, git diff now supports detection of moved lines with the --color-moved option. It works for moves across files.

It works, obviously, for colorized terminal output. As far as I can tell, there is no option to indicate moves in plain text patch format, but that makes sense.

For default behavior, try

git diff --color-moved

The command also takes options, which currently are no, default, plain, zebra and dimmed_zebra (Use git help diff to get the latest options and their descriptions). For example:

git diff --color-moved=zebra

As to how it is done, you can glean some understanding from this email exchange by the author of the functionality.