12 ms·

Git log – The good parts

338 points by okket 9y ago

zwischenzug 9y ago
Commands in the article: git clone https://github.com/ianmiell/cookbook-openshift3-frozen cd cookbook-openshift3-frozen git log git log --oneline git log --oneline --decorate git log --oneline --decorate --all git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph --simplify-by-decoration git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph --stat git log -G 'chef-client' --graph --oneline --stat git log -G 'chef-client' --graph --oneline --stat --pickaxe-all
- MayeulC 9y ago
  A quick mnemonic I read on StackOverflow[1] some time ago: When using git log, do it like "a dog" git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph I must say I had forgotten about the `--all` part, but the article mentions that it should be on by default if running interactively in the terminal, at least with recent versions of git. [1]It might have been https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057564/pretty-git-branch-graphs https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057564/pretty-git-branc... but I am not 100% sure.
  - jwilk 9y ago
    I don't believe the article's claim about --all being on by default is true.
    - zwischenzug 9y ago
      It's not, it was a typo I've corrected.
  - shezi 9y ago
    So the obvious alias would be git config --global alias.logadog "log --all --decorate --online --graph"
anonova 9y ago
I would recommend tig for anyone looking for a cli git repo browser: https://jonas.github.io/tig/ https://jonas.github.io/tig/ Then there's no need to mess with git log and all its options.
- aequitas 9y ago
  Second that, I love tig as a history browser. However for Git tree manipulation I find it a little disappointing. A lot can be customised with shortcuts, but it feels a little cumbersome and you need to restart for some changes to be visible.
- draw_down 9y ago
  Yeah, tig really comes in handy at times.
susam 9y ago
In case anyone finds these useful, here are some git log aliases I use everyday. FORMAT="%C(auto)%h %C(magenta)%ad %C(cyan)%an%C(auto)%d %s" PRETTY="--pretty=format:'$FORMAT' --date=short" git config --global alias.lga "log --graph --all $PRETTY" git config --global alias.lg "log --graph $PRETTY" git config --global alias.la "log --all $PRETTY" git config --global alias.ll "log $PRETTY" git config --global alias.lf "log --pretty=fuller --stat" There are two interesting things to note here: • Since the --decorate option is now enabled by default (at least since Git 2.13), I don't have the --decorate option in my aliases. You may have to add them if you are using an older version of Git. • Often while looking at the commit log, I need to know the commit date and the committer name which --oneline option does not show by default, so instead of using the --oneline option, I am formatting the one-liner logs myself with the `--pretty=format:` option to see these details. The --simplify-by-decoration option is a nice one, something I can add to my list of aliases. I have these aliases and a few other useful aliases documented in a bonus section named "Nifty Commands" in a fork and pull request workflow document I shared on Hacker News about a month ago. Here is the URL: https://github.com/susam/gitpr https://github.com/susam/gitpr.
- draw_down 9y ago
  Jeez. I could never remember all that stuff.
- alxndr 9y ago
  Git has a built-in way of achieving what you've done with the $FORMAT and $PRETTY variables; look at @twic's comment on this story.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
For those increasingly rare times I'm not using Magit[0], I have a "git lg" alias I found once through HN[1]: git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit" I strongly recommend both. -- [0] - https://magit.vc/ https://magit.vc/ [1] - https://coderwall.com/p/euwpig/a-better-git-log https://coderwall.com/p/euwpig/a-better-git-log
- peff 9y ago
  You should probably avoid `--color`, as it turns on color unconditionally, even if output is going to a file. In older versions of Git the %C color placeholders were unconditional anyway. In modern Git, they respect the normal auto-coloring settings. You can also drop `--abbrev-commit`, since `%h` abbreviates by default (use `%H` if you want the full hash).
  - dalore 9y ago
    For the lazy: git config --global alias.lg "log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'"
    - garborg 9y ago
      We must have started from the same source. I've since added displaying message bodies by default, but similar otherwise: lg = log --graph --date=relative --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n%w(0,4,4)%-b%n%n%-N'
    - knux 9y ago
      You can still add color when not piping or writing to a file with `--color=auto`. git config --global alias.lg "log --color=auto --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'"
      - 9y ago
legec 9y ago
Another useful option is '--first-parent' One use case is : "when did branchA fork from master ?" git log --graph --oneline --... --first-parent branchA master
- zwischenzug 9y ago
  That's a good one... I'll probably add that tonight after work.
awake 9y ago
Or use sourcetree
- golergka 9y ago
  You can't run sourcetree output through grep, sed and xargs though.
  - taeric 9y ago
    Curious, why would you run log through those? It already has flags to support getting birth the messages and the diffs. Granted, familiarity and reflex are decent reasons.
- ozim 9y ago
  Sourcetree is awful and slow. There is git gui by default, which is not perfect but IMO better that cli. I actually use Git Extensions for years now and could not find anything better.
  - pwneduser 9y ago
    Which Git GUI present by default do you find better than CLI? gitk? Or do you have something else in mind?
    - ozim 9y ago
      This one where you just type in 'git gui' and it pops up. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-gui https://git-scm.com/docs/git-gui
      - majewsky 9y ago
        `git gui` is not a commit tree browser though. It's used for making commits.
        ozim 9y ago
pwneduser 9y ago
Quote from article: "Remember that your version might do --all by default when output goes to the terminal instead of a file" Which version of Git does --all by default?
- peff 9y ago
  I think they meant to say "might do --decorate by default" (which Git does since v2.13.0).
  - zwischenzug 9y ago
    Indeed, have updated - the all and decorate sections got jumbled up in an edit earlier.
- zingmars 9y ago
  The ones distributed in Ubuntu and MinGW do. Probably many others as well. EDIT: Or not. It's off by default actually.
  - pwneduser 9y ago
    Which version of Ubuntu? The last time I checked, --all was not enabled by default in Ubuntu? Can someone confirm if this is indeed true? If this is indeed true, how do they achieve this? Do they modify git source code to achieve this?
    - jwilk 9y ago
      You can't override existing Git commands with aliases.
    - zingmars 9y ago
      Nevermind, I made a mistake and tested it on a repo where ---all would have little noticeable effect. It is indeed disabled by default. That said, custom source edits are entirely possible. Canonical does keep their own repositories after all [1]. [1] - https://launchpad.net/git https://launchpad.net/git
rom1v 9y ago
I discovered --simplify-by-decoration thanks to the article. Thank you :)
thriftwy 9y ago
The best part of git log is git reflog. It's like suddently having eyes to see.
- knux 9y ago
  My personal favorite is `git log -p --` because it actually shows you the content that changed. Or, to show you what changed on each given single line, use `git log -p --color-words --`. Far more useful for long lines, IMO. I'm also a fan of `git log -LN,N:filename`, where N is a line number. It gives you a log of that particular line number. It's like `git blame` but better.
- Stratoscope 9y ago
  git reflog pales in comparison to SmartGit's log view. Just click the Recyclable Commits checkbox, and all the commits from the reflog are shown in the normal SmartGit log, integrated into the view just like every other commit, with all of SmartGit's usual tools available. Want to see which files changed in a particular commit? Click the commit. Want to see the diff for one of those files? Click the file. It's all right there. No copying commit hashes or having to use any other commands to see what changed. Stashes are treated the same way. Click the Stashes checkbox and they are also displayed as part of the normal log with all tools available. I really like the way SmartGit integrates these separate Git features into a single unified log view. https://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/ https://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/
thiht 9y ago
An unappreciated flag of git is `--no-pager`. It allows, as said in the name, to execute a git command without using a pager. Using this flag, my git log aliases to: `git --no-pager log --pretty=oneline -n30 --abbrev-commit`. It just shows the 30 last commits directly in my command line
hungerstrike 9y ago
I like Tortoisegit. No commands to memorize and the entire product can be worked via the keyboard. https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xc9vb.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xc9vb.png
- evfanknitram 9y ago
  I like GitExtensions. I cringe when i see people manually entering hashes when they want to do stuff such as simple diffs. It's busy work. Hammering away on the keyboard but actually accomplishing so little.
  - hungerstrike 9y ago
    Thanks! I would really like something that integrates with Finder on the Mac and I see that it is cross platform, so I will have to try that out.
js2 9y ago
Sometimes I like to generate a summary for release note purposes. The shortlog command (which is what git merge uses) is good for that. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog
elteto 9y ago
I don't see it mentioned anywhere, but git log -N (where N is 1, 2, 3, 4...) will show the last N commits only. I find myself doing `git log -1` pretty often to see what was the last commit, so I imagine I'm not the only one.
- wging 9y ago
  'git show' does that too.
Ruphin 9y ago
This is my preferred git log command: git config --global alias.lg "log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --date=relative --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset) %C(white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset)' --all" Of all the git log variants that I have come across I find this one the most clean, easy to parse, and nicely formatted. I think I found it on HN somewhere. Maybe someone finds it as useful as I did
jordigh 9y ago
This reminds me a bit of my `hg wip` command: http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/customising-mercurial-like-a-pro/ http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/customising-mercurial-l... It eventually got mainlined into Mercurial as the `hg show` command: https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/WhatsNew#Mercurial_4.3_.2F_4.3.1_.282017-08-10.29 https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/WhatsNew#Mercurial_4.3_.2...
RobertRoberts 9y ago
I just spent 15 minutes entering different Git log commands. Good times.
ibdf 9y ago
Thanks for sharing. I've been forcing myself to be independent from a git GUI, and just learn the commands. I didn't even know that was a --graph option to git log.
dahart 9y ago
I wish git log had a native columnized one-line output, it's hard to read with variable length fields. You can (and I did) use the --pretty option to format the log output, and columnize it. But that's involved (my git 'columnized log' script is ~100 lines long) and hard to share.
MattyRad 9y ago
I like this the idea of showing the most common use cases for a git command (or at the very least, a valuable use case), separating the sections by building out the flags and options. The git man pages, while thorough, don't provide anything this concise. I could easily add these commands as aliases, which I appreciate.
bitpow 9y ago
> 15-team project that doesn’t rebase Holy un-scalable code base Batman.
pkamb 9y ago
I can't imagine developing or sorting out repo issues without a full tree-view of the last hundred commits showing branches, merges, SHAs, tags, authors, commit messages, etc. But it's just another tab in my GUI app (sourcetree), not a complicated set of flags that needs a blog post to explain. The use of git as a command-line-only tool is completely strange and alien to me. It works so well as a full-fledged graphical app.
- OskarS 9y ago
  I work for a small game studio with a couple of programmers and artists, and we use git for source control (which works for us, our binary assets aren't big enough to make git too much trouble). Most of our team is non-programmers, and I've become the "go-to git guy" at my company. All the others use Sourcetree, so I have lots of experience with it, and I can tell you: I would never pick Sourcetree over command line git. Sourcetree is an okay piece of software, but command-line git is so much faster to use. Even doing simple things like adding, committing, pulling and pushing takes half the time on the command line for me compared to Sourcetree. For this particular logging issue, you don't actually type up all those flags every time, you make an alias and it takes no time at all. If you're trying to do anything marginally complicated (say, bisecting or using the reflog), Sourcetree is all but useless. Command line git is harder to learn and harder to use in the beginning (and virtually impossible to use unless you're comfortable with the terminal), but if you're using the terminal a significant amount anyway, it's just a better solution. I will say: the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to get into the habit of using magit, and it's the only git client I've used that can compete with the command line. Sourcetree certainly can't, not for me.
  - pkamb 9y ago
    My experience is coworker developers struggling-at-best to use git from the command line in the simple case, and having almost no visibility into the tree/history of the repository for use in debugging. Or being unaware of useful git features such as line-by-line selective staging (that I consider absolutely essential for dev teams). I don't particularly like SourceTree, and it is slow and annoying in certain ways. But I'm extremely productive with it as a poweruser, and it's much better for beginners as well.
erikb 9y ago
"git log" was yesterday, "git lol" is the new hip thing. Give it a shot: https://github.com/erikbgithub/dot-files/blob/master/.gitconfig#L38 https://github.com/erikbgithub/dot-files/blob/master/.gitcon...
zestyping 9y ago
I can't use git without "git gl": [alias] gl = log --pretty=format:\"%x1b[33m%h%x1b[36m%d %Cgreen%ae %Cred%ad%Creset%n%s%n\" --graph --date=local Try this in your .gitconfig. I highly recommend it.
samuell 9y ago
You don't need fancy GUI's, nor do you need to remember long flag names, when there is tig - text mode interface to git. You only need to remember it's "git" backwards: https://jonas.github.io/tig/ https://jonas.github.io/tig/ Screenshot of main view: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonasfonseca/3316428644/in/album-72157614470764617/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonasfonseca/3316428644/in/alb... Available in most repos (ubuntu, homebrew I think, etc). Never understood why it's not more widely known than it is.

338 points by okket 9y ago

Commands in the article: git clone https://github.com/ianmiell/cookbook-openshift3-frozen cd cookbook-openshift3-frozen git log git log --oneline git log --oneline --decorate git log --oneline --decorate --all git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph --simplify-by-decoration git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph --stat git log -G 'chef-client' --graph --oneline --stat git log -G 'chef-client' --graph --oneline --stat --pickaxe-all

MayeulC 9y ago
A quick mnemonic I read on StackOverflow[1] some time ago: When using git log, do it like "a dog" git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph I must say I had forgotten about the `--all` part, but the article mentions that it should be on by default if running interactively in the terminal, at least with recent versions of git. [1]It might have been https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057564/pretty-git-branch-graphs https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057564/pretty-git-branc... but I am not 100% sure.
- jwilk 9y ago
  I don't believe the article's claim about --all being on by default is true.
  - zwischenzug 9y ago
    It's not, it was a typo I've corrected.
- shezi 9y ago
  So the obvious alias would be git config --global alias.logadog "log --all --decorate --online --graph"

anonova 9y ago

I would recommend tig for anyone looking for a cli git repo browser: https://jonas.github.io/tig/ https://jonas.github.io/tig/ Then there's no need to mess with git log and all its options.

aequitas 9y ago
Second that, I love tig as a history browser. However for Git tree manipulation I find it a little disappointing. A lot can be customised with shortcuts, but it feels a little cumbersome and you need to restart for some changes to be visible.
draw_down 9y ago
Yeah, tig really comes in handy at times.

susam 9y ago

In case anyone finds these useful, here are some git log aliases I use everyday. FORMAT="%C(auto)%h %C(magenta)%ad %C(cyan)%an%C(auto)%d %s" PRETTY="--pretty=format:'$FORMAT' --date=short" git config --global alias.lga "log --graph --all $PRETTY" git config --global alias.lg "log --graph $PRETTY" git config --global alias.la "log --all $PRETTY" git config --global alias.ll "log $PRETTY" git config --global alias.lf "log --pretty=fuller --stat" There are two interesting things to note here: • Since the --decorate option is now enabled by default (at least since Git 2.13), I don't have the --decorate option in my aliases. You may have to add them if you are using an older version of Git. • Often while looking at the commit log, I need to know the commit date and the committer name which --oneline option does not show by default, so instead of using the --oneline option, I am formatting the one-liner logs myself with the `--pretty=format:` option to see these details. The --simplify-by-decoration option is a nice one, something I can add to my list of aliases. I have these aliases and a few other useful aliases documented in a bonus section named "Nifty Commands" in a fork and pull request workflow document I shared on Hacker News about a month ago. Here is the URL: https://github.com/susam/gitpr https://github.com/susam/gitpr.

draw_down 9y ago
Jeez. I could never remember all that stuff.
alxndr 9y ago
Git has a built-in way of achieving what you've done with the $FORMAT and $PRETTY variables; look at @twic's comment on this story.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

For those increasingly rare times I'm not using Magit[0], I have a "git lg" alias I found once through HN[1]: git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit" I strongly recommend both. -- [0] - https://magit.vc/ https://magit.vc/ [1] - https://coderwall.com/p/euwpig/a-better-git-log https://coderwall.com/p/euwpig/a-better-git-log

peff 9y ago
You should probably avoid `--color`, as it turns on color unconditionally, even if output is going to a file. In older versions of Git the %C color placeholders were unconditional anyway. In modern Git, they respect the normal auto-coloring settings. You can also drop `--abbrev-commit`, since `%h` abbreviates by default (use `%H` if you want the full hash).
- dalore 9y ago
  For the lazy: git config --global alias.lg "log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'"
  - garborg 9y ago
    We must have started from the same source. I've since added displaying message bodies by default, but similar otherwise: lg = log --graph --date=relative --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n%w(0,4,4)%-b%n%n%-N'
  - knux 9y ago
    You can still add color when not piping or writing to a file with `--color=auto`. git config --global alias.lg "log --color=auto --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'"
    - 9y ago

legec 9y ago

Another useful option is '--first-parent' One use case is : "when did branchA fork from master ?" git log --graph --oneline --... --first-parent branchA master

zwischenzug 9y ago
That's a good one... I'll probably add that tonight after work.

awake 9y ago

Or use sourcetree

golergka 9y ago
You can't run sourcetree output through grep, sed and xargs though.
- taeric 9y ago
  Curious, why would you run log through those? It already has flags to support getting birth the messages and the diffs. Granted, familiarity and reflex are decent reasons.
ozim 9y ago
Sourcetree is awful and slow. There is git gui by default, which is not perfect but IMO better that cli. I actually use Git Extensions for years now and could not find anything better.
- pwneduser 9y ago
  Which Git GUI present by default do you find better than CLI? gitk? Or do you have something else in mind?
  - ozim 9y ago
    This one where you just type in 'git gui' and it pops up. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-gui https://git-scm.com/docs/git-gui
    - majewsky 9y ago
      `git gui` is not a commit tree browser though. It's used for making commits.
      - ozim 9y ago

pwneduser 9y ago

Quote from article: "Remember that your version might do --all by default when output goes to the terminal instead of a file" Which version of Git does --all by default?

peff 9y ago
I think they meant to say "might do --decorate by default" (which Git does since v2.13.0).
- zwischenzug 9y ago
  Indeed, have updated - the all and decorate sections got jumbled up in an edit earlier.
zingmars 9y ago
The ones distributed in Ubuntu and MinGW do. Probably many others as well. EDIT: Or not. It's off by default actually.
- pwneduser 9y ago
  Which version of Ubuntu? The last time I checked, --all was not enabled by default in Ubuntu? Can someone confirm if this is indeed true? If this is indeed true, how do they achieve this? Do they modify git source code to achieve this?
  - jwilk 9y ago
    You can't override existing Git commands with aliases.
  - zingmars 9y ago
    Nevermind, I made a mistake and tested it on a repo where ---all would have little noticeable effect. It is indeed disabled by default. That said, custom source edits are entirely possible. Canonical does keep their own repositories after all [1]. [1] - https://launchpad.net/git https://launchpad.net/git

rom1v 9y ago

I discovered --simplify-by-decoration thanks to the article. Thank you :)

thriftwy 9y ago

The best part of git log is git reflog. It's like suddently having eyes to see.

knux 9y ago
My personal favorite is `git log -p --` because it actually shows you the content that changed. Or, to show you what changed on each given single line, use `git log -p --color-words --`. Far more useful for long lines, IMO. I'm also a fan of `git log -LN,N:filename`, where N is a line number. It gives you a log of that particular line number. It's like `git blame` but better.
Stratoscope 9y ago
git reflog pales in comparison to SmartGit's log view. Just click the Recyclable Commits checkbox, and all the commits from the reflog are shown in the normal SmartGit log, integrated into the view just like every other commit, with all of SmartGit's usual tools available. Want to see which files changed in a particular commit? Click the commit. Want to see the diff for one of those files? Click the file. It's all right there. No copying commit hashes or having to use any other commands to see what changed. Stashes are treated the same way. Click the Stashes checkbox and they are also displayed as part of the normal log with all tools available. I really like the way SmartGit integrates these separate Git features into a single unified log view. https://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/ https://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/

thiht 9y ago

An unappreciated flag of git is `--no-pager`. It allows, as said in the name, to execute a git command without using a pager. Using this flag, my git log aliases to: `git --no-pager log --pretty=oneline -n30 --abbrev-commit`. It just shows the 30 last commits directly in my command line

hungerstrike 9y ago

I like Tortoisegit. No commands to memorize and the entire product can be worked via the keyboard. https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xc9vb.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xc9vb.png

evfanknitram 9y ago
I like GitExtensions. I cringe when i see people manually entering hashes when they want to do stuff such as simple diffs. It's busy work. Hammering away on the keyboard but actually accomplishing so little.
- hungerstrike 9y ago
  Thanks! I would really like something that integrates with Finder on the Mac and I see that it is cross platform, so I will have to try that out.

js2 9y ago

Sometimes I like to generate a summary for release note purposes. The shortlog command (which is what git merge uses) is good for that. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog

elteto 9y ago

I don't see it mentioned anywhere, but git log -N (where N is 1, 2, 3, 4...) will show the last N commits only. I find myself doing `git log -1` pretty often to see what was the last commit, so I imagine I'm not the only one.

wging 9y ago
'git show' does that too.

Ruphin 9y ago

This is my preferred git log command: git config --global alias.lg "log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --date=relative --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset) %C(white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset)' --all" Of all the git log variants that I have come across I find this one the most clean, easy to parse, and nicely formatted. I think I found it on HN somewhere. Maybe someone finds it as useful as I did

jordigh 9y ago

This reminds me a bit of my `hg wip` command: http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/customising-mercurial-like-a-pro/ http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/customising-mercurial-l... It eventually got mainlined into Mercurial as the `hg show` command: https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/WhatsNew#Mercurial_4.3_.2F_4.3.1_.282017-08-10.29 https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/WhatsNew#Mercurial_4.3_.2...

RobertRoberts 9y ago

I just spent 15 minutes entering different Git log commands. Good times.

ibdf 9y ago

Thanks for sharing. I've been forcing myself to be independent from a git GUI, and just learn the commands. I didn't even know that was a --graph option to git log.

dahart 9y ago

I wish git log had a native columnized one-line output, it's hard to read with variable length fields. You can (and I did) use the --pretty option to format the log output, and columnize it. But that's involved (my git 'columnized log' script is ~100 lines long) and hard to share.

MattyRad 9y ago

I like this the idea of showing the most common use cases for a git command (or at the very least, a valuable use case), separating the sections by building out the flags and options. The git man pages, while thorough, don't provide anything this concise. I could easily add these commands as aliases, which I appreciate.

bitpow 9y ago

> 15-team project that doesn’t rebase Holy un-scalable code base Batman.

pkamb 9y ago

I can't imagine developing or sorting out repo issues without a full tree-view of the last hundred commits showing branches, merges, SHAs, tags, authors, commit messages, etc. But it's just another tab in my GUI app (sourcetree), not a complicated set of flags that needs a blog post to explain. The use of git as a command-line-only tool is completely strange and alien to me. It works so well as a full-fledged graphical app.

OskarS 9y ago
I work for a small game studio with a couple of programmers and artists, and we use git for source control (which works for us, our binary assets aren't big enough to make git too much trouble). Most of our team is non-programmers, and I've become the "go-to git guy" at my company. All the others use Sourcetree, so I have lots of experience with it, and I can tell you: I would never pick Sourcetree over command line git. Sourcetree is an okay piece of software, but command-line git is so much faster to use. Even doing simple things like adding, committing, pulling and pushing takes half the time on the command line for me compared to Sourcetree. For this particular logging issue, you don't actually type up all those flags every time, you make an alias and it takes no time at all. If you're trying to do anything marginally complicated (say, bisecting or using the reflog), Sourcetree is all but useless. Command line git is harder to learn and harder to use in the beginning (and virtually impossible to use unless you're comfortable with the terminal), but if you're using the terminal a significant amount anyway, it's just a better solution. I will say: the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to get into the habit of using magit, and it's the only git client I've used that can compete with the command line. Sourcetree certainly can't, not for me.
- pkamb 9y ago
  My experience is coworker developers struggling-at-best to use git from the command line in the simple case, and having almost no visibility into the tree/history of the repository for use in debugging. Or being unaware of useful git features such as line-by-line selective staging (that I consider absolutely essential for dev teams). I don't particularly like SourceTree, and it is slow and annoying in certain ways. But I'm extremely productive with it as a poweruser, and it's much better for beginners as well.

erikb 9y ago

"git log" was yesterday, "git lol" is the new hip thing. Give it a shot: https://github.com/erikbgithub/dot-files/blob/master/.gitconfig#L38 https://github.com/erikbgithub/dot-files/blob/master/.gitcon...

zestyping 9y ago

I can't use git without "git gl": [alias] gl = log --pretty=format:\"%x1b[33m%h%x1b[36m%d %Cgreen%ae %Cred%ad%Creset%n%s%n\" --graph --date=local Try this in your .gitconfig. I highly recommend it.

samuell 9y ago

You don't need fancy GUI's, nor do you need to remember long flag names, when there is tig - text mode interface to git. You only need to remember it's "git" backwards: https://jonas.github.io/tig/ https://jonas.github.io/tig/ Screenshot of main view: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonasfonseca/3316428644/in/album-72157614470764617/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonasfonseca/3316428644/in/alb... Available in most repos (ubuntu, homebrew I think, etc). Never understood why it's not more widely known than it is.