Local history: does not preserve entries from previously deleted file

[Pyrolistical]

Type: Bug

1. Create file foo.txt with some content. Save it
2. Delete foo.txt
3. Create bar.txt
4. Rename bar.txt to foo.txt
5. Look at TIMELINE
6. See no history for foo.txt created in step 1.

Normally when one recreates foo.txt you can still see history for it. But in the case where a file is renamed to foo.txt, the history is loss.

VS Code version: Code 1.89.1
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 8-Core Processor (16 x 3400)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	31.92GB (16.35GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id cca6ff05-6383-4d91-895f-0091516fe9b0
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions: none

[VSCodeTriageBot]

Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code, the latest stable release is 1.89.1. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

Happy Coding!

[Pyrolistical]

Still an issue in 1.89.1

[bpasero]

This is likely just not implemented: a file that is moved to a name that was previously tracked will overwrite said history.

Fair feature request though, as such moving to Backlog.

[bpasero]

Hm, something fishy is going on. We already preserve local history across renames but I can see that we seem to replace the last entry after rename, loosing the last edit that was made. Maybe we can preserve it, needs more investigation.

[bpasero]

Good catch, we are indeed just dropping previous entries for a file if a file is moved to that file:

vscode/src/vs/workbench/services/workingCopy/common/workingCopyHistoryService.ts

Line 373 in 70e10d6

await this.fileService.move(sourceHistoryEntriesFolder, targetHistoryFolder, true);

A better approach here would be to read the metadata of the entries at the location that is being moved to and merge it with the current entries.

[bpasero]

One consequence of this change is that the history for a file entry will be a merge of all changes applied to the previous name(s) and the current name. Since entries are all sorted by time stamp, its harder to follow over a set of changes if you go from oldest to newest entry.

However, the intent of local history was always to preserve as many changes as possible and never loose any changes, so I think this new model is in the spirit of local history.

[VSCodeTriageBot]

This bug has been fixed in the latest release of VS Code Insiders!

@Pyrolistical, you can help us out by commenting /verified if things are now working as expected.

If things still don't seem right, please ensure you're on version 5e68ffd of Insiders (today's or later - you can use Help: About in the command palette to check), and leave a comment letting us know what isn't working as expected.

Happy Coding!