Subject: [PATCH] log: improve --follow following renames in merge commits

From: Miklos Vajna <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 May 2026 08:04:50 +0200

Have a repo with a subtree merge, do a 'git log --follow prefix/test.c',
the output only contains history in the outer repo, not commits that
were merged via a subtree merge.

There is an inherent limitation of the current 'git log --follow'
design, since it's limited to a single filename, and once 'git log' sees
a rename, it only tracks the new path, which only works with mostly
linear history.  Still, 'git blame prefix/test.c' does find the original
commits, so it's fair to expect 'git log --follow' can do the same.

Fix the problem by improving when to update the followed path in
log_tree_diff(). If the path is untouched versus the merge result in all
parents but one, then choose the parent where it was changed, including
any --follow processing.

This is almost the same as requiring that all but one parents are
TREESAME, except we don't consider the addition of a file as
"interesting". With this, the pre-merge history of subtree merge is
visible in git log, but the behavior is unchanged for other cases (e.g.
when a file was previously named differently on multiple parents).

Signed-off-by: Miklos Vajna <[email-masked]>
---

Hi Jeff,

On Fri, May 22, 2026 at 01:43:12AM -0400, Jeff King <[email-masked]> wrote:
> I think we can probably all agree that both before and after your patch,
> --follow is never going to do the _right_ thing, which is to follow
> paths independently down both sides of history.

Sure.

> I am OK conceptually with making the current broken behavior slightly
> more useful if it is easy to do. But I am not sure if we are making
> things more useful here or not. If we see a merge where the file "bar"
> was previous "foo" on one side and "bar" on the other, our broken follow
> is going to either pick "foo" or "bar" to continue with as we traverse.
> But which one is right? Whichever name we choose, we are potentially
> omitting results from the other side.

Indeed, I didn't consider this case.

> There might be a more useful rule like: if the path is untouched versus
> the merge result in all parents but one (i.e., TREESAME), then choose
> the parent where it was changed, including any --follow processing.

I like this idea: it keeps working with the subtree use-case I have in
mind and goes back to not change behavior when the file has history on
multiple parents.

> So I dunno. Probably some experimenting could yield more analysis there,

I think requiring TREESAME for all but one parents is too strict, since
a subtree merge will look like an addition vs the first parent and will
look like a rename on the first parent. It seems to me that handling
addition as TREESAME can be correct: if the file was just added, that
suggests it has no prior history.

So a slightly relaxed rule could be: if the path is untouched or just
added versus the merge result in all parents but one, then choose the
parent where it was changed, including any --follow processing.

Here is a patch that implements that idea. It works for the subtree
merge use-case I outlined and I also added a test to show that the
behavior is unchanged for the "multiple parents have actual history for
this file" case you mentioned.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Miklos

 log-tree.c                          | 55 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 t/meson.build                       |  1 +
 t/t4218-log-follow-subtree-merge.sh | 64 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 119 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100755 t/t4218-log-follow-subtree-merge.sh

diff --git a/log-tree.c b/log-tree.c
index 7e048701d0..368144fafc 100644
--- a/log-tree.c
+++ b/log-tree.c
@@ -1142,8 +1142,61 @@ static int log_tree_diff(struct rev_info *opt, struct commit *commit, struct log
 				/* Show parent info for multiple diffs */
 				log->parent = parents->item;
 			}
-		} else
+		} else {
+			if (opt->diffopt.flags.follow_renames) {
+				/*
+				 * If the path is untouched in all parents but
+				 * one, then choose the parent where it was
+				 * changed.
+				 */
+				struct commit_list *p;
+				struct commit *changed_parent = NULL;
+				int n_changed = 0;
+
+				for (p = parents; p; p = p->next) {
+					struct diff_options diff_opts;
+					int interesting = 0;
+					int i;
+
+					parse_commit_or_die(p->item);
+					repo_diff_setup(opt->diffopt.repo, &diff_opts);
+					copy_pathspec(&diff_opts.pathspec,
+						      &opt->diffopt.pathspec);
+					diff_opts.flags.recursive = 1;
+					diff_opts.flags.follow_renames = 1;
+					diff_opts.output_format = DIFF_FORMAT_NO_OUTPUT;
+					diff_setup_done(&diff_opts);
+					diff_tree_oid(get_commit_tree_oid(p->item),
+						      oid, "", &diff_opts);
+
+					for (i = 0; i < diff_queued_diff.nr; i++) {
+						struct diff_filepair *pair = diff_queued_diff.queue[i];
+						if (DIFF_FILE_VALID(pair->one)) {
+							interesting = 1;
+							break;
+						}
+					}
+
+					diff_queue_clear(&diff_queued_diff);
+					diff_free(&diff_opts);
+
+					if (interesting) {
+						n_changed++;
+						changed_parent = p->item;
+						if (n_changed > 1)
+							break;
+					}
+				}
+
+				if (n_changed == 1) {
+					diff_tree_oid(get_commit_tree_oid(changed_parent),
+						      oid, "", &opt->diffopt);
+					diff_queue_clear(&diff_queued_diff);
+					opt->diffopt.found_follow = 0;
+				}
+			}
 			return 0;
+		}
 	}
 
 	showed_log = 0;
diff --git a/t/meson.build b/t/meson.build
index 7528e5cda5..b4ae8d76d8 100644
--- a/t/meson.build
+++ b/t/meson.build
@@ -574,6 +574,7 @@ integration_tests = [
   't4215-log-skewed-merges.sh',
   't4216-log-bloom.sh',
   't4217-log-limit.sh',
+  't4218-log-follow-subtree-merge.sh',
   't4252-am-options.sh',
   't4253-am-keep-cr-dos.sh',
   't4254-am-corrupt.sh',
diff --git a/t/t4218-log-follow-subtree-merge.sh b/t/t4218-log-follow-subtree-merge.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..fc846ebeb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t4218-log-follow-subtree-merge.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description='Test --follow follows renames across subtree merges'
+
+GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME=master
+export GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME
+
+. ./test-lib.sh
+
+test_expect_success 'setup subtree-merged repository' '
+	git init inner &&
+	echo inner >inner/inner.txt &&
+	git -C inner add inner.txt &&
+	git -C inner commit -m "inner init" &&
+
+	git init outer &&
+	echo outer >outer/outer.txt &&
+	git -C outer add outer.txt &&
+	git -C outer commit -m "outer init" &&
+
+	git -C outer fetch ../inner master &&
+	git -C outer merge -s ours --no-commit --allow-unrelated-histories \
+		FETCH_HEAD &&
+	git -C outer read-tree --prefix=inner/ -u FETCH_HEAD &&
+	git -C outer commit -m "Merge inner repo into inner/ subdirectory"
+'
+
+test_expect_success '--follow finds the pre-merge commit through a subtree merge' '
+	git -C outer log --follow --pretty=tformat:%s inner/inner.txt >actual &&
+	echo "inner init" >expect &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'setup merge with rename sources on multiple parents' '
+	git init left &&
+	printf "shared content\n" >left/a.txt &&
+	git -C left add a.txt &&
+	git -C left commit -m "left: a.txt" &&
+
+	git init right &&
+	printf "shared content\n" >right/b.txt &&
+	git -C right add b.txt &&
+	git -C right commit -m "right: b.txt" &&
+
+	git -C left fetch ../right master &&
+	git -C left merge -s ours --no-commit --allow-unrelated-histories \
+		FETCH_HEAD &&
+	git -C left rm a.txt &&
+	printf "shared content\n" >left/c.txt &&
+	git -C left add c.txt &&
+	git -C left commit -m "Merge: rename to c.txt" &&
+
+	printf "more content\n" >>left/c.txt &&
+	git -C left add c.txt &&
+	git -C left commit -m "modify c.txt"
+'
+
+test_expect_success '--follow does not switch when multiple parents supply a rename source' '
+	git -C left log --follow --pretty=tformat:%s c.txt >actual &&
+	echo "modify c.txt" >expect &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_done
-- 
2.51.0