Renaming files in a git repository

If you are using git for your data science project (which you should!), you have to be careful when renaming a file.

If you simply rename the file in your OS file browser, git would interpret this as deleting the file with the old name and creating a new one with the new name. They wouldn’t be linked in any way and you’d essentially loose the history of that file.

So, how can you rename a file and keep its history? You need to use the git mv command and subsequently make a commit. Here’s an example:

git mv old_name.ext new_name.ext
git commit -m 'Rename old_name.ext to new_name.txt'

That’s it! Don’t be afraid to rename a file when using git. Just use the right command.