From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: John Ellson Subject: Wanted - a file browser interface to git Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 20:58:30 -0400 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Wed Oct 19 03:02:42 2005 Return-path: Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1ES2Kk-0001yg-EV for gcvg-git@gmane.org; Wed, 19 Oct 2005 03:01:34 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750740AbVJSBB1 (ORCPT ); Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:01:27 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751361AbVJSBB1 (ORCPT ); Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:01:27 -0400 Received: from main.gmane.org ([80.91.229.2]:35258 "EHLO ciao.gmane.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750740AbVJSBB0 (ORCPT ); Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:01:26 -0400 Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1ES2J3-0001Ys-Bf for git@vger.kernel.org; Wed, 19 Oct 2005 02:59:49 +0200 Received: from h-135-207-24-103.research.att.com ([135.207.24.103]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 19 Oct 2005 02:59:49 +0200 Received: from ellson by h-135-207-24-103.research.att.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 19 Oct 2005 02:59:49 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: git@vger.kernel.org X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: h-135-207-24-103.research.att.com User-Agent: Mail/News 1.4.1 (X11/20051008) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: I know that Linus thinks that files are less important than commits, but we are finding a real need to be able to browse though old versions of files and we have not yet found an efficient way to do it with git. An example is: "I know that file xxx contained algorithm yyy at some point in the past and now I'd like to browse back through the history of xxx to find the exact details." I think what I'd like is a file browser on git that: - can navigate the directory tree, starting by default with the HEAD tree, but able to browse the state of the tree at any time in the history. - can select any file from the tree, and then view the state of that file at any time in its history by stepping forward or back through commits that have affected that file. - can view the difference between any pair of states of the file, with annotations as to the source of the changes. - can search for a string across the complete history of a file. - can invoke the users choice of editor on the file. Neither gitk nor qgit provide tree browsing, so it can be hard to get at a specific file. qgit has nice file browser that annotates all changes, but I think I'd prefer a two panel diff view. Neither qgit not gitk provide links to an editor so that a file can be worked on once found. Am I out in left field here, or does anyone else feel the need for something like this? John