Git stores snapshots of the directory content at the moment. (Contrast older VCS systems which just capture the changelog) If files haven’t changed it just points to the previous version. We can check the content of the commit blob. It’s stored in .git/objects. It’s stored as a compressed zlib file. ~/projects/my-project/.git/objects/1a(my-branch) » pigz -d < 58989906551da9cd7f2395c640e0b90667aa27 commit 677tree f1c83252e98f54138359308ef247193bf4e0bef4 parent 1747b1d081167971b9612ad75862943e8a9f344c author Mister Author <mister-author@host.com> 1567673031 +0000 committer Mister Author <mister-author@host.