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@ajaegers
Last active February 17, 2024 13:28
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Git: move files in an subfolder keeping history

Change structure of project folder with Git

I have this structure:

 project-folder/
     .git
     wp-admin/
     wp-content/
     wp-includes/
    .htaccess
    ...

I want this structure:

 project-folder/
     .git
     public
          wp-admin/
          wp-content/
          wp-includes/
         .htaccess
         ...

The benefits

  • Keep away from the Internet my .git folder
  • Wordpress files separated in a sub-folder
  • Keep Git history changes
  • Hide from the Internet deployment scripts or project sensitive informations

Move files with git and keep file history

  1. Be sure you don't have files uncommitted, if not commit them before next step.

    git status

  2. In project-directory create public subfolder

    mkdir public

  3. Move files with git mv except public subfolder to avoid errors

    for file in $(ls | grep -v 'public'); do git mv $file public; done;

  4. Move specific files like .htaccess etc...

    git mv .htaccess public/

  5. Commit changes

    git commit -m 'Moved files to public/'

  6. That's all !

    git log -M summary

To see file history of moved files

In Bash:

git log --follow

http://git-scm.com/docs/git-log

In SourceTree:

On logging file(s) you have to check [x] Follow renamed files

@talkingtoaj
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I concur with @cxgreat2014 , testing it myself on a windows system, the key points of interest are:

  1. open the project folder with gitbash in order to avail yourself of linux
  2. use the for file in $(ls | grep -v 'public'); do git mv $file public; done; line, substituting public with the name of your new folder
  3. upon reopening my terminal in this folder, I see a message from git written in blue stating * History restored
  4. I find git now has all moved files staged for a commit, marked as 'renamed'. I make a new commit of these renames, and I find I have my old git history intact with only an additional commit added to my repo. Great work @ajaegers !

@Binly42
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Binly42 commented Feb 17, 2024

Unfortunately there's no "correct" way to do this with git. Really the only way to get what you probably want is if you're willing to rewrite your entire history via a rebase

note that the original source of the reference link might be: this stackoverflow answer,

and after some reading and digging, I just take a little notes here:

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