git whatchanged

🎯 What & why

Older-style log output, kept for compatibility. It's git log --raw with a different default and a name from the pre-2.x era.

🧠 Mental model

whatchanged exists because that's what early Git users typed; modern Git redirects to log internals with --raw turned on by default. There is no reason to learn it as a new user.

🛠️ Synopsis

git whatchanged [<options>] [<revision-range>] [[--] <path>...]

Accepts essentially every option git log accepts. Differs from log only in
that it implies --raw and historically did not show merges by default.

🎚️ Switches & options

💡 Use cases

• Reading old shell scripts or documentation that still invoke whatchanged.
• Muscle memory for veterans who learned Git before 2008.
• Demonstrating that 'git log --raw' is the modern equivalent.
• Honestly: stop reaching for it. Use git log.

🧪 Examples

git log --raw --no-merges

git whatchanged

git whatchanged -p -- src/

git log --raw --since='2 weeks ago'

🎓 Recommendations

• Use git log --raw instead. It's the documented modern command and accepts every flag whatchanged does.
• If you find whatchanged in a script, replace it with git log --raw --no-merges for behavioral equivalence.
• Don't teach whatchanged to new contributors; it adds vocabulary without capability.

🪤 Common pitfalls

• The default of suppressing merges differs from git log and surprises people who switch between the two.
• Some flag combinations behave subtly differently from log in older Git versions; the safe move is git log --raw.
• Documentation references to whatchanged are usually a clue the surrounding material is dated.

🔗 Related modules

• git log - the modern, supported command
• git diff - for path-level change inspection
• git show - per-commit detail view

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.