View the change history of a file using github.com
Solution 1:
You can view the change history of a file by clicking on the history button, or by adding commits to the URL of the file. Here is what it looks like for a file at the Homebrew repository on GitHub:
https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/commits/master/SUPPORTERS.md
To get a line-by-line history, simply add the SHA-1 string of the commit for which you want to see the diff to the URL after the word commit, and then anchor it with the filename you are interested in. For the same file above:
https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/commit/288f001e924d5365b79c279e4478f372a04011ae#SUPPORTERS.md
Solution 2:
As @BurhanKhalid say, but here explaining as a "GitHub fast guide", with URL syntax:
- Browse your project at
https://github.com/<USER>/<PROJECT>... - ... then you have a URL ending with the file path:
https://github.com/<USER>/<PROJECT>/blob/master/<PATH> - Now you have all, is only to change "blob/master" to "commits/master":
https://github.com/<USER>/<PROJECT>/commits/master/<PATH>
PS: to remember "commits/master" click at the project's home in the "Commit" link.
Ops: there are a similar answer here, @TimHenigan expressed with http://github.com/<username>/<project>/commits/<branch>/<path/to/file>
Question to GitHub developers team
Why do you not offer a direct link for this kind of browsing? We need it, like Wikipedia readers need "history" link!
Ops, GitHub's team is listening to us?
Now (June 2014) when you browse through the folders, an icon appears, see "browse commits" above right. When you click, the tree/master URL turns commits/master.
Still missing to have the same for files, as showed here, but was an evolution.
Solution 3:
I think git-history is an alternative and good method for quickly browsing the history of files in any Git repository.
You don't need to download anything. You only need to replace some text in the URL.
Steps to do:
- Go to a file in GitHub (or GitLab, or Bitbucket)
- Replace
github.comwithgithub.githistory.xyz
There is Chrome and Firefox extensions to add an Open in Git History button on GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket so that you don't need to memorize step 2.
For more information, you can go to its GitHub page.
Solution 4:
The GitHub capabilities for history exploration for a file just got a bit better in Apr. 2021 with:
"View file at a specific point in the commit history"
When viewing the commit history of a single file, users can now click to view that file at the selected point in history.
From there, type "b" for the blame view of that file in that commit, and explore its changes:
With the blame view, you can view the line-by-line revision history for an entire file, or view the revision history of a single line within a file by clicking
.
Each time you click
