git rename history demonstration

$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/test/.git/

$ cat >A <<.e
a
b
c
.e

$ git add A
$ git commit A
[master (root-commit) eada707] create file A
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 A

$ git mv A B
$ git commit
[master 7e5d9ad] rename file A -> B
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 rename A => B (100%)

$ cp B C
$ git add C
$ git commit
[master b397d24] copy file B -> C
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 C


# git blame shows that file B has a history (back to file A) ...

$ git blame B
^eada707 A (2014-04-26 13:32:44 +0200 1) a
^eada707 A (2014-04-26 13:32:44 +0200 2) b
^eada707 A (2014-04-26 13:32:44 +0200 3) c


# ... while file C doesn't have a history

$ git blame C
b397d244 (2014-04-26 13:33:40 +0200 1) a
b397d244 (2014-04-26 13:33:40 +0200 2) b
b397d244 (2014-04-26 13:33:40 +0200 3) c



# CliffordVienna's answer

$ git diff eada707 -M
diff --git a/A b/B
similarity index 100%
rename from A
rename to B
diff --git a/C b/C
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de98044
--- /dev/null
+++ b/C
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+a
+b
+c

$ git diff eada707
diff --git a/A b/A
deleted file mode 100644
index de98044..0000000
--- a/A
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-a
-b
-c
diff --git a/B b/B
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de98044
--- /dev/null
+++ b/B
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+a
+b
+c
diff --git a/C b/C
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de98044
--- /dev/null
+++ b/C
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+a
+b
+c