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Git file blame

doc/user/project/repository/files/git_blame.md

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  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

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Git blame provides more information about every line in a file, including the last modified time, author, and commit hash.

View blame for a file

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  • Viewing blame directly in the file view introduced in GitLab 16.7 with flag named inline_blame. Disabled by default.

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Prerequisites:

  • The file must contain readable text content. The GitLab UI displays git blame results for text files like .rb, .js, .md, .txt, .yml, and similar formats. Binary files, such as images and PDFs, are not supported.

To view the blame for a file:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Code > Repository.
  3. Select the file you want to review.
  4. Either:
    • To change the view of the current file, in the file header, select Blame.
    • To open the full blame page, in the upper-right corner, select Blame.
  5. Go to the line you want to see.

When you select Blame, this information is displayed:

To see the precise date and time of the commit, hover over the date. To display a color legend for commit age, see Show age indicator legend.

Blame previous commit

To see earlier revisions of a specific line:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Code > Repository.
  3. Select the file you want to review.
  4. In the upper-right corner, select Blame, and go to the line you want to see.
  5. Select View blame prior to this change ({{< icon name="doc-versions" >}}) until you've found the changes you're interested in viewing.

Ignore specific revisions

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To configure Git blame to ignore specific revisions:

  1. In the root of your repository, create a .git-blame-ignore-revs file.

  2. Add the commit hashes you want to ignore, one per line. For example:

    plaintext
    a24cb33c0e1390b0719e9d9a4a4fc0e4a3a069cc
676c1c7e8b9e2c9c93e4d5266c6f3a50ad602a4c

  3. Open a file in the blame view.

  4. Select Blame preferences ({{< icon name="preferences" >}}).

  5. Select the Ignore specific revisions checkbox.

The blame view refreshes and skips the revisions specified in the .git-blame-ignore-revs file, showing the previous meaningful changes instead.

Show age indicator legend

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In the inline blame view, you can show or hide the age indicator legend. The legend displays a color scale from Newer to Older to help you interpret the age of each commit.

To show or hide the age indicator legend:

  1. Open a file in the blame view.
  2. Select Blame preferences ({{< icon name="preferences" >}}).
  3. Select or clear the Show age indicator legend checkbox.