How to keep the change log in git files when refactoring in IntelliJ?

Question

When I refactor the class in IntelliJ the git looses the track of old log of the file? Is there a way to refactor the file so that it keeps the log, or am I missing something?

I am checking the log of the file in the SourceTree, but I imagine it is the same for everything.

Answer 1

Move/Rename is handled automatically by Git and log should be kept if git detected that it was actually a move. It doesn't matter whether you rename from IDEA, terminal or file manager.

See also Why does git not "track" renames? and comments in the related bug report.

Answer 2

This approach, although probably not what you would like to hear, helped git detect renames (and ultimately understand the real file history) during a pretty big repackaging that I was doing (renaming package com.something to com.somethingelse with ~300 files inside it):

1. Do the renaming only outside of IntelliJ using "git mv" e.g. "git mv MyProject\src\main\java\com\something MyProject\src\main\java\com\somethingelse"
2. Commit
3. Do the repackaging changes in the source files using a regular IntelliJ text-replace - Edit > Find > Replace in path and replace all occurrences of com.something with com.somethingelse.
4. Commit