Pretty printing of git commit history

Date Fri 07 October 2016Readtime 6 minutes Tags

Helpful git logging aliases

Helpful aliases for viewing git commit history: logg, logga, loggs, loggsa, logd, logda, logdr, and logdra.

The aliases combine to utilize the same set of flags in different combinations:

--simplify-by-decoration:
--color:	show colored
--graph:	text-based graphical representation of the commit history
--date-order:	show no parents before all of its children are shown
--decorate:	print out the ref names (branches/tags) of any commits that are shown.
--oneline:	single line per commit with shortened commit SHA
	show only commits that are referred to by a branch or tag
--all:	show all commits
--date=relative (%ar):
	shows dates relative to the current time, e.g. "2 hours ago"

Git Config Aliases

[alias]
    #quick look at all repo
    loggsa = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --simplify-by-decoration --all
    #quick look at active branch (or refs pointed)
    loggs  = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --simplify-by-decoration
    #extend look at all repo
    logga  = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --all
    #extend look at active branch
    logg   = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate
    #Look with date
    logda  = log --color --date-order --date=local --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ad%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\" --all
    logd   = log --color --date-order --date=local --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ad%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\"
    #Look with relative date
    logdra = log --color --date-order --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ar%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\" --all
    logdr = log --color --date-order --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ar%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\"

Examples

Simple single line per commit printing of current branch:

$ git logg -n 5
* 8062af6 (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
* 9a600fd (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
* feaa32a (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* 6b2746e Update repo to use new submodules - Change pelican conf to point to new theme - Migrate gitlab-ci to use submodules - Rename reqs.txt to requirements.txt
* d1408c6 Add plugins and themes as submodules

Single line printing of all commits:

$ git logga -n 5
* 8062af6 (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
| * 1662f36 (origin/new-post) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
|/
* 9a600fd (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
| * e4300c7 (heroku/master, heroku) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* | feaa32a (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme

Single line printing of commits with decoration (branches, tags, etc.):

$  git loggs -n 5
* 8062af6 (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
* 9a600fd (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
* feaa32a (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* f7fc76b (origin/old-theme, old-theme) Tags are multicolumn
* 4846adf Initial Commit

Single line printing of commits with decoration (branches, tags, etc.) from all commits:

$  git loggsa -n 5
* 8062af6 (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
| * 1662f36 (origin/new-post) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
|/
* 9a600fd (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
| * e4300c7 (heroku/master, heroku) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* | feaa32a (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
|/

Single line printing of commits on current branch with date included:

$  git logd -n 5
* 8062af6 Thu Oct 6 23:09:23 2016  (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
* 9a600fd Thu Oct 6 22:54:59 2016  (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
* feaa32a Tue Sep 13 01:09:37 2016  (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* 6b2746e Sun Oct 2 20:10:38 2016  Update repo to use new submodules - Change pelican conf to point to new theme - Migrate gitlab-ci to use submodules - Rename reqs.txt to requirements.txt
* d1408c6 Sun Oct 2 18:48:51 2016  Add plugins and themes as submodules

Single line printing of all commits with date included:

$ git logda -n 5
* 8062af6 Thu Oct 6 23:09:23 2016  (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
| * 1662f36 Thu Oct 6 23:09:23 2016  (origin/new-post) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
|/
* 9a600fd Thu Oct 6 22:54:59 2016  (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
| * e4300c7 Tue Sep 13 01:09:37 2016  (heroku/master, heroku) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* | feaa32a Tue Sep 13 01:09:37 2016  (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme

Single line printing of commits on current branch with relative date included:

$ git logdr -n 5
* 8062af6 45 minutes ago  (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
* 9a600fd 59 minutes ago  (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
* feaa32a 3 weeks ago  (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* 6b2746e 4 days ago  Update repo to use new submodules - Change pelican conf to point to new theme - Migrate gitlab-ci to use submodules - Rename reqs.txt to requirements.txt
* d1408c6 4 days ago  Add plugins and themes as submodules

Single line printing of all commits with relative date included:

$ git logdra -n 5
* 8062af6 44 minutes ago  (HEAD -> master) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
| * 1662f36 44 minutes ago  (origin/new-post) POST: Pretty printing json and xml
|/
* 9a600fd 58 minutes ago  (origin/update-post, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Capitalize blog post title
| * e4300c7 3 weeks ago  (heroku/master, heroku) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme
* | feaa32a 3 weeks ago  (search) Install tipue search - Adding basics for search - Install beautifulsoup (required for plugin) - Update to latest theme

Commands for setting aliases

To quickly set a few of the aliases on a unfamiliar computer:

git config --global alias.logg 'log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate'
git config --global alias.logga 'log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --all'

git config --global alias.loggs 'log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --simplify-by-decoration'
git config --global alias.loggsa 'log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --simplify-by-decoration --all'

External sites

stackoverflow discussion:
my gitconfig:	https://github.com/paul-schwendenman/misc/blob/master/dotfiles/gitconfig
	http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057564/pretty-git-branch-graphs/22875140#22875140
another similar gitconfig:
	https://github.com/albfan/dotfiles/blob/master/gitconfig

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