Rename folder = big changes with Desktop

GitHub Client Apps GitHub Desktop
#1

I’m a newbie Git user. I have installed GitHub Desktop in Windows and cloned my repo from GitHub to my computer, and all is well there. What I have been doing is making changes to my cloned files on my computer and then periodically committing using Desktop (please tell me if that’s not the way to do it).

I see when I rename a folder in my clone, though, that Desktop wants to delete all the files in the existing repo folder and add them all to a folder with the new name. Does it actually do that? It seems like the repo history would grow much larger than it needs to that way. I have read that Git is smart enough to recognize file name or location changes without duplicating files, so why doesn’t Desktop do it that way? Or does it?

Thanks for any help,
Gerrit

#2

Welcome @CarpeCimex! If you move an entire directory it will show the files as changed due to the directory path changing. The recommended workflow for moving files/folders it to use the git mv command. GitHub Desktop does not have this functionality built in, but you can open the command line (Repository > Open in <command_line>) and use git mv <old_name> <new_name> to rename or move files/folders.

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions about this.

#3

Thank you, @steveward, I will see if I can make that work.