[NCLUG] crazy git question

[Gabriel L. Somlo]

I have a point-in-time tarball of a project from 2016, probably with
some local hacks applied, but with no .git metadata directory.

I have (access to) the real, upstream project on Github, from where I
can clone a current copy, complete with full commit history.

Is there some automated way to locate the "closest" upstream commit to
the state of my (probably hacked) tarball ?

Right now, I went back in the commit log to around the day, month, and
year associated with the files in the tarball, and I'm checking for
the presence of individual commits' changes in my tarball, trying to
find the first upstream commit that's *not* reflected in the tarball :)

That's slow and awkward, and I'm hoping there's a better way...

Tried articulating this in a google search, but that didn't get me very
far :)

Any ideas much appreciated!

Thanks,
--Gabriel