Linking to a line of code in a particular version of a file in Azure DevOps (VSTS)

Question

I want to link to a line of code in such a way that the link will continue to work even when the file is updated in future commits.

In Github I would do this by pressing 'y' to move to a version of the page that includes the blob SHA:

https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/b49e38b76b0998b0a8312d8c08c98728d3de2006/activerecord/lib/arel/attributes/attribute.rb#L30

(Alternatively GitHub has a 'copy permalink' option in the '...' menu that appears in the margin when you select a line - documented here.)

Is there an equivalent in Azure DevOps?

The link that I get when I select a line has the form:

https://.../_git/project?path=XXXX&version=GBmaster&line=426&lineStyle=plain&lineEnd=427&lineStartColumn=1&lineEndColumn=1

Lots of parameters defining the selection but nothing pinning the file version.

Answer 1

Browse files on the commit

Make sure you're browsing the entire source for the commit. Selecting lines when viewing the commit itself (ie AzDOs fancy git show) is for adding comments to the commit, but it doesn't help produce a link to the line @ that version, nor is there a way (at least not that I could find) to get a link to the comment made on the line. Getting a link to a comment on a line in a commit might have been helpful to provide additional direct context to what is linked and why, but that's also not what you asked for.

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Edit:

The below illustrations can be summarized in a few keyboard shortcuts.

1. Open the repo Files view using the 'e' global shortcut
2. Use 't' to put focus on the path selection to quickly navigate to the file in question
   • point 2 and 3 are order agnostic in relation to one another
3. Use 'y' to change the Files view to be based on the latest commit instead of on the branch
4. Make selection
5. Copy link as shown in illustration below

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Make selection

You should be able to select a line in the file contents and get a link to that line(s) in that version.

note: the link produced here is even more lengthy than the one you provided in your question.

Joy

When you navigate to the copied link, you will be directed to the commit and file contents with the line highlighted.

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Possible alternate method

Using the @username syntax in the comment editor might be a good solution to "share" a selection from the code. However, this method requires that you find the actual commit in which the change was made. Using the "browse files" method above allows you to share the address to a particular selection from any commit with the changes to be shared.

Answer 2

Thank you @JoshGust. For anyone else who wants the abbreviated version:

1. Files -->
2. (your repo branch) -->
3. History -->
4. Click A Commit hash/number (Latest/Head usually) -->
5. Browse Files -->
6. Your file -->
7. Select text & get a link.

Sheesh... quite some hoops to jump through, but glad it's possible.