git mv

Use git mv on a file or directory.

$ git mv OLD_PATH NEW_PATH
$ git commit

mv

You can also just do a plain move or rename and Git will see it as the same file. The file can even be modified and seen as the same by Git, up to a threshold.

$ mv abc.txt def.txt
$ git add .
$ git commit

Stage a rename

status

Just rename is not known to Git.

$ mv abc.txt def.txt
$ git status --short
 D abc.txt
?? def.txt

Stage and then it is known to Git.

$ mv abc.txt def.txt
$ git add .
$ git status --short
R  abc.txt -> def.txt

diff

Just rename is not known to Git.

$ mv abc.txt def.txt
$ git add .
$ git diff HEAD --summary
 delete mode 100644 abc.txt

Stage and then it is known to Git.

$ mv abc.txt def.txt
$ git add .
$ git diff HEAD --summary
 rename abc.txt => def.txt (100%)

diff

You can get git diff to detect a rename and also pass a similarity index to git diff.

The default is 50%.

See git-diff docs.

-M[<n>]
--find-renames[=<n>]

e.g.

$ git diff -M
$ git diff -M90%

Note that if you simply move/rename a file, Git will not see the new untracked path and it will also see a delete. So remember to stage first.