Recover a deleted file in git

Using git log with --follow and --all

git log --follow --all -- path/to/deleted/file.txt

This will show the commit history for the file, including the commit where it was deleted.

Using git log with --diff-filter

git log --diff-filter=D --summary

This shows all commits that deleted files. Add the file path to be more specific:

git log --diff-filter=D --summary -- path/to/deleted/file.txt

Using git log with --oneline for a cleaner view

git log --oneline --follow --all -- path/to/deleted/file.txt

Using git rev-list to find the exact commit

git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- path/to/deleted/file.txt

This returns the SHA of the last commit that affected the file (which would be the deletion commit).

To see what was deleted in that commit

Once you have the commit hash, you can see the actual deletion:

git show <commit-hash> -- path/to/deleted/file.txt

If you don't know the exact path, you have several options to find deleted files:

Search by filename only

git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep "filename"

This searches through all deletion commits for files containing "filename".

List all deleted files

git log --diff-filter=D --summary

This shows all deleted files across the entire repository history. You can then search through the output.

Search deleted files by pattern

git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep "\.js$"

This finds all deleted JavaScript files, for example.

Use git log with name-only to see just filenames

git log --diff-filter=D --name-only

This gives you a cleaner list of just the deleted filenames with their commit info.

Search within commit messages and file changes

git log --all --full-history -- "**/filename*"

This searches for files matching the pattern in any directory.

Interactive approach with git log and grep

git log --diff-filter=D --name-only | grep -i "part-of-filename"

If you remember roughly when it was deleted

git log --diff-filter=D --since="2024-01-01" --until="2024-06-01" --summary