How to properly apply a patch with moved/renamed files using Git

Question

I'm trying to properly create and apply patches using Git:

1. I created a new git project, with two files: first.txt and second.txt
2. I create a branch
3. In this new branch, I modify the content of both files and commit
4. I move the file second.txt to folder\second_moved.txt and commit

Now I create a patch with git format-patch master --stdout > changes.patch.

Here is the content of changes.patch:

From cb2a85ff9a0bc36d4f04fbe72068ae9ec3a9bcb0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: 
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 20:46:18 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] changes

---
 fist.txt   | 2 +-
 second.txt | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fist.txt b/fist.txt
index d4b4f36..b5d9ba4 100644
--- a/fist.txt
+++ b/fist.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-first file
\ No newline at end of file
+first file foobar
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/second.txt b/second.txt
index 0f8bbfe..54e687e 100644
--- a/second.txt
+++ b/second.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-second file
\ No newline at end of file
+second file barfoo
\ No newline at end of file
-- 
1.8.4.msysgit.0


From 09c868828cf30fba36ba04cbd476dfcb0f68f79c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: 
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 20:47:15 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] moved

---
 folder/second_moved.txt | 1 +
 second.txt              | 1 -
 2 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 folder/second_moved.txt
 delete mode 100644 second.txt

diff --git a/folder/second_moved.txt b/folder/second_moved.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54e687e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/folder/second_moved.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+second file barfoo
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/second.txt b/second.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 54e687e..0000000
--- a/second.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-second file barfoo
\ No newline at end of file
-- 
1.8.4.msysgit.0

Now, I move back to my master branch and apply the patch with git apply changes.patch. There is no error.

Here is the result of git status:

# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#       modified:   fist.txt
#       modified:   second.txt
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#       changes.patch
#       folder/
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

As you can see, I still have the file second.txt. I'm not expecting this, but I expect it should have been removed as it's been moved in folder. In folder, I actually get the file second_moved.txt. Both files' content has been correctly modified by git apply.

As I'm expecting to use git to generate and apply patches to branches of code that will be largely refactored, I cannot afford to manually track and delete all files that have been changed, then moved or renamed. How can I avoid this?

Answer 1

try using

git am changes.patch

instead of git apply

From the man page "Use git-am(1) to create commits from patches generated by git-format-patch(1)"

Tested on Git 2.1.1. I see the same apply behavior you get, but am works properly.