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I'm trying to view the history of a file on GitHub locally on my Mac OS X laptop because GitHub tells me "Sorry, this commit history is taking too long to generate." (see URL https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/commits/master/Formula/pipenv.rb)

It suggests that I use this command:

git log master -- Formula/pipenv.rb

... but when I run the command I get this error:

fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

Do I need to do a "git clone" first in a temporary directory, and how do I specify the GitHub address URL?

slantalpha
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1 Answers1

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Do I need to do a "git clone" first in a temporary directory

Yes. It doesn’t need to be temporary. I usually clone to the Desktop. A folder will be created as part of the clone. A clone contains the entire history; it copies the whole repository. You will then be able to do whatever you like.

how do I specify the GitHub address URL?

GitHub tells you that when you click the Clone button.

matt
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  • Thanks. I don't see a "clone" button when I go to the URL I provided in the original post. Could it be somewhere else? (I'm very new to GitHub and repos) – slantalpha May 30 '20 at 00:19