The File History

Kaleidoscope can show and compare all Git revisions of a file located in a git working directory.

What is the file history?

The File History is a list of Git commits for that file. It is shown as a list on the trailing side of the window with entries for each commit, potentially grouped by year or month, depending on the number of commits present.

Commit Entry

Each entry is grouped into two rows. The first row shows if that commit is currently part of a comparison in A or B, the name of the author of that commit as well as the short commit identifier (hash, SHA). The second row shows the message provided by the author for the commit and the date the commit was made. As you hover over each element, more comprehensive data is being shown.

Click the A or B buttons to show that revision of the file in side A or B.

Note that you can also right-click (or ctrl-click) both the entire entry and the short commit identifier to reveal additional options.

Commit Details

Clicking an entry in the list shows more comprehensive data for that commit in a popover.

That popover shows all the same data as shown in the entry. The message is formatted and not abbreviated, dates are shown in a longer form.

Click the Compare with Previous button to have that commit shown in side B and the one before that in side A, thereby comparing these two versions.

Click the Open Changeset button or choose Open Changeset from the menu next to it to show the entire changeset for that commit, instead of just that one file. The Open Changeset with Previous menu entry compares all changes between the selected commit and the one below for that file, usually giving you a different result.

The small gear button on the bottom opens the Repository Settings, allowing you to set a specific remote service for that repository.

Searching for a commit

The search field on the bottom of the list allows you to search of all kinds of data of the commit, like author, commit identifier, or commit message.

Branch Picker

The button on the bottom right of the window allows you to pick the branch to explore.

How to show the History of a File

There are three ways to show the history of a file.

1. Select File > Open File History… from the main menu. This will show an open dialog allowing you to select a single file that's located inside a Git working directory.

2. For any open file comparison, select View > Show File Historys from the main menu or click the History toolbar button. Note that these options are only available if the file being compared is inside a Git working directory.

3. From a changeset document, bring up the contextual menu on an item in the sidebar and select Open File History for <file name>, or select Navigate > Open File History for <file name> from the main menu. In this scenario, the File History will be opened in a tab of the same window.