git: Move a file/directory but still merge changes easily?

Question

I've read in various FAQs that git doesn't explicitly track renames/moves, preferring to look for identical (or in some situations similar?) files. That's great, but will it cope with this situation: a friend's remote repository has a new feature (i18n) involving some new files at debian/po/*.po. I have my own fork of this project, and want to merge this feature but put the files at just po/*.po (I can do that as two commits, or whatever is necessary). I expect the remote repo will continue to receive updates to the feature, and I want to just merge/cherry-pick those commits and have them applied to the files in my new location. Can git do that, perhaps with some sort of mapping of "these files have moved over here now"? Or is it more pain than it's worth and should I just accept the slightly odd debian path in my repo?

Answer 1

use git mv and everything will be AOK.

Why not just try it instead of asking? You can always reset easily in git. :)

Answer 2

Alternatively, rename the files using mv, and invoke git add --all to stage all the delete operations and add the untracked files (the new file names). Without --all, you must explicitly stage the delete operations and new file names separately. Don't use git add --update, either, as this will stage all the delete operations, but won't add the new file names.

Note that you'll likely want to perform these operations in a local branch so that you don't inadvertently push them to your friend's master branch or your friend doesn't pull them into his master branch.