`git blame` See who last changed each line of a file

Prints a file with the commit, author and date that last touched every line. Use it to find out why a line is the way it is and who to ask.

Synopsis

git blame [OPTION]... FILE

Option or form	What it does
`-L START,END`	Only show those line numbers
`-w`	Ignore whitespace changes when assigning blame
`-C`	Detect lines moved or copied from other files
`-e`	Show the author email instead of the name
`--ignore-rev COMMIT`	Skip a commit, such as a bulk reformat

Blame a whole file

git blame src/app.js

3f2a9c1 (Ana Lopez 2026-09-02 10:14 1) const express = require("express");

Blame a range of lines

git blame -L 40,60 src/app.js

Ignore whitespace and moved lines

git blame -w -C src/app.js

Skip formatting commits using a list

git blame --ignore-revs-file .git-blame-ignore-revs src/app.js

Blame shows the last change, not the original author of the idea. Follow the commit with git show to see context.
The GitHub web page for any file has a Blame button that does the same with links to each commit.
If a name appears as ^abc123, that line came from the first commit.