diff --git a/git.zig b/git.zig
index 7252630939b76ddbf78186fe888a58c87f0f3109..d2f24bf04f8856b8a8faaa304681e57870e553ea 100644
--- a/git.zig
+++ b/git.zig
@@ -193,6 +193,23 @@ pub fn revList(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, dir: nfs.Dir, comptime count: u31, from
     return std.mem.trimRight(u8, result.stdout, "\n");
 }
 
+// TODO make this inspect .git/objects manually
+// TODO make a version of this that accepts an array of sub_paths and searches all of them at once, so as to not lose spot in history when searching for many old paths
+// https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Git-Objects
+// https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Packfiles
+pub fn revListAll(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, dir: nfs.Dir, from: CommitId, sub_path: string) !string {
+    const t = tracer.trace(@src(), " {s} -- {s}", .{ from.id, sub_path });
+    defer t.end();
+
+    const result = try std.process.Child.run(.{
+        .allocator = alloc,
+        .cwd_dir = dir.to_std(),
+        .argv = &.{ "git", "rev-list", from.id, "--", sub_path },
+    });
+    std.debug.assert(result.term == .Exited and result.term.Exited == 0);
+    return std.mem.trimRight(u8, result.stdout, "\n");
+}
+
 pub fn parseCommit(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, commitfile: string) !Commit {
     const t = tracer.trace(@src(), "", .{});
     defer t.end();