Find all the Git commits that modified a particular line in a file.

git-line-history.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Sample use:
# PATTERN="\"/some-route\"" FILE=config/routes.rb ~/bin/git-line-history.sh
# Thanks to mikedillion <https://github.com/mikedillion> for the basis of this!

set -e

#PATTERN="version':"
#FILE="setup.py"

if [ -z "$REF" ]; then
  REF=HEAD
  echo "Starting with $REF"
fi

if [ -z "$FILE" ]; then
  echo "Pass FILE environment variable"
  exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$PATTERN" ]; then
  echo "Pass PATTERN environment variable"
  exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$REPO_URL" ]; then
  REPO_URL="https://github.com/your-favorite/default-repo"
  echo "Assuming REPO_URL should be $REPO_URL"
fi

while true; do
  BLAME_LINE=$(git blame $REF^ $FILE | grep "$PATTERN")
  NEW_REF=$(echo $BLAME_LINE | awk '{print $1}')
  echo "$NEW_REF - $REPO_URL/commit/$NEW_REF"
  REF=$NEW_REF
done