How to Find a Deleted File in the Project Commit History?

Get a list of the deleted files and copy the full path of the deleted file

git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep delete

Execute the next command to find commit id of that commit and copy the commit id

git log --all -- FILEPATH

Show diff of deleted file

git show COMMIT_ID -- FILE_PATH

Remember, you can write output to a file using > like

git show COMMIT_ID -- FILE_PATH > deleted.diff

Suppose you want to recover a file called MyFile, but are uncertain of its path (or its extension, for that matter):

Preliminary: Avoid confusion by stepping to the git root

A nontrivial project may have multiple directories with similar or identical filenames.

> cd <project-root>

1. Find the full path

   git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep delete | grep MyFile

   delete mode 100644 full/path/to/MyFile.js

full/path/to/MyFile.js is the path & file you're seeking.

2. Determine all the commits that affected that file

   git log --oneline --follow -- full/path/to/MyFile.js

   bd8374c Some helpful commit message

   ba8d20e Another prior commit message affecting that file

   cfea812 The first message for a commit in which that file appeared.

3. Checkout the file

If you choose the first-listed commit (the last chronologically, here bd8374c), the file will not be found, since it was deleted in that commit.

> git checkout bd8374c -- full/path/to/MyFile.js

`error: pathspec 'full/path/to/MyFile.js' did not match any file(s) known to git.`

Just select the preceding (append a caret) commit:

> git checkout bd8374c^ -- full/path/to/MyFile.js

Could not edit the accepted response so adding it as an answer here,

to restore the file in git, use the following (note the '^' sign just after the SHA)

git checkout <SHA>^ -- /path/to/file

@Amber gave correct answer! Just one more addition, if you do not know the exact path of the file you can use wildcards! This worked for me.

git log --all -- **/thefile.*

Below is a simple command, where a dev or a git user can pass a deleted file name from the repository root directory and get the history:

git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep filename | awk '{print $4; exit}' | xargs git log --all -- 

If anybody, can improve the command, please do.

Try using one of the viewers, such as gitk so that you can browse around the history to find that half remembered file. (use gitk --all if needed for all branches)

If you prefer to see the size of all deleted file

as well as the associated SHA

git log --all --stat --diff-filter=D --oneline

add a -p to see the contents too

git log --all --stat --diff-filter=D -p

To narrow down to any file simply pipe to grep and search for file name

git log --all --stat --diff-filter=D --oneline | grep someFileName

You might also like this one if you know where the file is

git log --all --full-history -- someFileName

Summary:

1. Step 1

You search your file full path in history of deleted files git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep filename

2. Step 2

You restore your file from commit before it was deleted

restore () {
  filepath="$@"
  last_commit=$(git log --all --full-history -- $filepath | grep commit | head -1 | awk '{print $2; exit}')
  echo "Restoring file from commit before $last_commit"
  git checkout $last_commit^ -- $filepath
}

restore my/file_path

Here is my solution:

git log --all --full-history --oneline -- <RELATIVE_FILE_PATH>
git checkout <COMMIT_SHA>^ -- <RELATIVE_FILE_PATH>