I've seen some books and articles have some really pretty looking graphs of Git branches and commits. How can I make high-quality printable images of Git history?
36 Answers
Update 2: I've posted an improved version of this answer to the Visualizing branch topology in Git question, since it's far more appropriate there. That version includes lg3, which shows both the author and committer info, so you really should check it out. Leaving this answer for historical (& rep, I'll admit) reasons, though I'm really tempted to just delete it.
My two cents: I have two aliases I normally throw in my ~/.gitconfig file:
[alias]
lg1 = log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --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
lg2 = log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold cyan)%aD%C(reset) %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset)%n'' %C(white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)' --all
lg = !"git lg1"
git lg/git lg1 looks like this:
and git lg2 looks like this:
(Note: There now exists much more applicable answers to this question, such as fracz's, Jubobs', or Harry Lee's!)
Many of the answers here are great, but for those that just want a simple one-line-to-the-point answer without having to set up aliases or anything extra, here it is:
git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph
Not everyone would be doing a git log all the time, but when you need it just remember:
"A Dog" = git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph
Gitgraph.js allows to draw pretty Git branches without a repository. Just write a JavaScript code that configures your branches and commits and render it in the browser. Interactive docs are available.
var gitGraph = new GitGraph({
template: "blackarrow",
mode: "compact",
orientation: "horizontal",
reverseArrow: true
});
var master = gitGraph.branch("master").commit().commit();
var develop = gitGraph.branch("develop").commit();
master.commit();
develop.commit().commit();
develop.merge(master);
Or with metro template:
Or with commit messages, authors, and tags:
Test it with JSFiddle.
Generate it with Git Grapher by @bsara.
Built on top of TikZ & PGF, gitdags is a little LaTeX package that allows you to effortlessly produce vector-graphics commit graphs, and more.
Automatic generation of an existing repository's commit graph is not the purpose of gitdags; the graphs it produces are only meant for educational purposes.
I often use it to produce graphs for my answers to Git questions, as an alternative to ASCII commit graphs:
- How can I do a bugfix on master and integrate it into my less stable branch(es)?
- How does git commit --amend work, exactly?
- Why does Git tell me "Not currently on any branch" after I run "git checkout origin/<branch>"?
- What is the difference between merging master into branch and merging branch into master?
- Git rebase --preserve-merges fails
Here is an example of such a graph demonstrating the effects of a simple rebase:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{gitdags}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\begin{subfigure}[b]{\textwidth}
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
% Commit DAG
\gitDAG[grow right sep = 2em]{
A -- B -- {
C,
D -- E,
}
};
% Tag reference
\gittag
[v0p1] % node name
{v0.1} % node text
{above=of A} % node placement
{A} % target
% Remote branch
\gitremotebranch
[origmaster] % node name
{origin/master} % node text
{above=of C} % node placement
{C} % target
% Branch
\gitbranch
{master} % node name and text
{above=of E} % node placement
{E} % target
% HEAD reference
\gitHEAD
{above=of master} % node placement
{master} % target
\end{tikzpicture}
\subcaption{Before\ldots}
\end{subfigure}
\begin{subfigure}[b]{\textwidth}
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\gitDAG[grow right sep = 2em]{
A -- B -- {
C -- D' -- E',
{[nodes=unreachable] D -- E },
}
};
% Tag reference
\gittag
[v0p1] % node name
{v0.1} % node text
{above=of A} % node placement
{A} % target
% Remote branch
\gitremotebranch
[origmaster] % node name
{origin/master} % node text
{above=of C} % node placement
{C} % target
% Branch
\gitbranch
{master} % node name and text
{above=of E'} % node placement
{E'} % target
% HEAD reference
\gitHEAD
{above=of master} % node placement
{master} % target
\end{tikzpicture}
\subcaption{\ldots{} and after \texttt{git rebase origin/master}}
\end{subfigure}
\caption{Demonstrating a typical \texttt{rebase}}
\end{figure}
\end{document}
Gitg is a clone of Gitk and GitX for GNOME (it also works on KDE etc.) which shows a pretty colored graph.
It is actively developed (as of 2012). It lets you sort the commits (graph nodes) either chronologically or topologically, and hide commits that don't lead to a selected branch.
It works fine with large repositories and complex dependency graphs.
Sample screenshots, showing the linux-git and linux-2.6 repositories:
I just wrote one tool that can generate a pretty Git commits graph using HTML/Canvas.
And provide a jQuery plugin which makes it easy to use.
[GitHub]
Preview:
Sourcetree is a really good one. It does print out a good looking and medium size history and branch graph: (the following is done on an experimental Git project just to see some branches). Supports Windows 7+ and Mac OS X 10.6+.
git-forest is an excellent Perl script I've been using for more than a year and I hardly use the git log command directly any more.
These are some of the things I love about this script:
- It uses Unicode characters to draw the lines in the graph giving a more continuous look to the graph lines.
- You can combine
--reversewith the graph output, which is not possible with the regulargit logcommand. - It uses
git loginternally to grab the list of commits, so all options that you pass togit logcan also be passed to this script as well.
I have an alias using git-forest as follows:
[alias]
tree = "forest --pretty=format:\"%C(red)%h %C(magenta)(%ar) %C(blue)%an %C(reset)%s\" --style=15 --reverse"
This is how the output looks like on a terminal:
I wrote a web tool for converting Git logs into pretty SVG graphs:
Bit-Booster - Offline Commit Graph Drawing Tool
Upload output from git log --pretty='%h|%p|%d' directly into the tool and then click on the "download graph.svg" link.
The tool is pure-client-side, and so none of your Git data is shared with my server. You can also save the HTML + JavaScript locally and run it using "file:///" URLs. It was verified on Chrome 48 and Firefox 43 on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin).
It generates HTML that can be posted directly into any page (including the blogspot blogging engine!). Take a look at some of the blog posts here:
Here's a screenshot of a sample HTML file generated by the tool:
(the tool)
A nice and clean looking table-like Git graph output for shells
With hashes as usually besides the graph tree
Or in an extra column
EDIT: You want to start right away without reading all explanations? Jump to EDIT 6.
INFO: For a more branch-like colored version for shells, see also my second answer ().
In all the answers to this question none showed a clean table-like looking output for shells so far. The closest was this answer from gospes where I started from.
The core point in my approach is to count only the tree characters shown to the user. Then fill them to a personal length with white spaces.
Other than Git, you need these tools
- grep
- paste
- printf
- sed
- seq
- tr
- wc
Mostly on board with any Linux distribution.
The code snippet is
while IFS=+ read -r graph hash time branch message;do
# Count needed amount of white spaces and create them
whitespaces=$((9-$(sed -nl1000 'l' <<< "$graph" | grep -Eo '\\\\|\||\/|\ |\*|_' | wc -l)))
whitespaces=$(seq -s' ' $whitespaces|tr -d '[:digit:]')
# Show hashes besides the tree ...
#graph_all="$graph_all$graph$(printf '%7s' "$hash")$whitespaces \n"
# ... or in an own column
graph_all="$graph_all$graph$whitespaces\n"
hash_all="$hash_all$(printf '%7s' "$hash") \n"
# Format all other columns
time_all="$time_all$(printf '%12s' "$time") \n"
branch_all="$branch_all$(printf '%15s' "$branch")\n"
message_all="$message_all$message\n"
done < <(git log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --pretty=format:'+%C(bold 214)%<(7,trunc)%h%C(reset)+%C(dim white)%>(12,trunc)%cr%C(reset)+%C(214)%>(15,trunc)%d%C(reset)+%C(white)%s%C(reset)' && echo);
# Paste the columns together and show the table-like output
paste -d' ' <(echo -e "$time_all") <(echo -e "$branch_all") <(echo -e "$graph_all") <(echo -e "$hash_all") <(echo -e "$message_all")
To calculate the needed white spaces we use
sed -nl1000 'l' <<< "$graph"
to get all characters (till 1000 per line) than select only the tree characters: * | / \ _ and white spaces with
grep -Eo '\\\\|\||\/|\ |\*|_'
Finally count them and substract the result from our chosen length value, which is 9 in the example.
To produce the calculated amount of white spaces we use
seq -s' ' $whitespaces
and truncate the position numbers with
tr -d '[:digit:]'
Then add them to the end of our graph line. That's it!
Git has the nice option to format the length of the output specifiers already with the syntax '%><(amount_of_characters,truncate_option)',
which adds white spaces from the left '>' or right '<' side and can truncate characters from the start 'ltrunc', middle 'mtrunc' or end 'trunc'.
It is important that printf cmd's above use the same length values for the corresponding Git column.
Have fun to style your own clean table-like looking output to your needs.
Extra:
To get the right length value you can use the following snippet
while read -r graph;do
chars=$(sed -nl1000 'l' <<< "$graph" | grep -Eo '\\\\|\||\/|\ |\*|_' | wc -l)
[[ $chars -gt ${max_chars:-0} ]] && max_chars=$chars
done < <(git log --all --graph --pretty=format:' ')
and use $max_chars as the right length value above.
EDIT 1:
Just noticed that the underline character is also used in the git tree and edit the code snippets above accordingly. If there are other characters missing, please leave a comment.
EDIT 2:
If you want to get rid of the brackets around branch and tag entries, just use "%D" instead of "%d" in the git command, like in EDIT 3.
EDIT 3: Maybe the "auto" color option is the one you prefer most for branch and tag entries?
Change this part of the git command (color 214)
%C(214)%>(15,trunc)%D%C(reset)
to auto
%C(auto)%>(15,trunc)%D%C(reset)
EDIT 4: Or you like your own color mix for that part, a fancy output with blinking head?
To be able to style the head, branch names and tags first we need the "auto" color option in our git command like in EDIT 3.
Then we can replace the know color values with our own by adding these 3 lines
# branch name styling
branch=${branch//1;32m/38;5;214m}
# head styling
branch=${branch//1;36m/3;5;1;38;5;196m}
# tag styling
branch=${branch//1;33m/1;38;5;222m}
just before line
branch_all="$branch_all$(printf '%15s' "$branch")\n"
in our code snippet. The replacement values produce the colors above.
For example the replacement value for head is
3;5;1;38;5;196
where 3; stands for italic, 5; for blinking and 1;38;5;196 for the color. For more infos start here. Note: This behavior depends on your favorite terminal and may therefore not be usable.
BUT you can choose any color value you prefer.
OVERVIEW of the git color values and ANSI equivalents
You find a list with git color/style option here.
If you need the output on your console for accurate colors (the picture above is scaled down by Stack Overflow) you can produce the output with
for ((i=0;i<=255;i++));do
while IFS='+' read -r tree hash;do
echo -e "$(printf '%-10s' "(bold $i)") $hash $(sed -nl500 'l' <<< "$hash"|grep -Eom 1 '[0-9;]*[0-9]m'|tr -d 'm')"
done < <(git log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --pretty=format:'+%C(bold '$i')%h%C(reset)'|head -n 1)
done
in your Git project path which uses the first commit from your Git log output.
EDIT 5: As member "Andras Deak" mentioned, there are some ways how to use this code:
1) as an alias:
alias does not accept parameters but a function can, therefore just define in your .bashrc
function git_tably () {
unset branch_all graph_all hash_all message_all time_all max_chars
### add here the same code as under "2) as a shell-script" ###
}
and call the function git_tably (derived from table-like) directly under your git project path or from wherever you want with your git project path as first parameter.
2) as a shell-script:
I use it with the option to pass a Git project directory as first parameter to it or if empty, take the working directory like the normal behavior. In it's entirety we have
# Edit your color/style preferences here or use empty values for git auto style
tag_style="1;38;5;222"
head_style="1;3;5;1;38;5;196"
branch_style="38;5;214"
# Determine the max character length of your git tree
while IFS=+ read -r graph;do
chars_count=$(sed -nl1000 'l' <<< "$graph" | grep -Eo '\\\\|\||\/|\ |\*|_' | wc -l)
[[ $chars_count -gt ${max_chars:-0} ]] && max_chars=$chars_count
done < <(cd "${1:-"$PWD"}" && git log --all --graph --pretty=format:' ')
# Create the columns for your preferred table-like git graph output
while IFS=+ read -r graph hash time branch message;do
# Count needed amount of white spaces and create them
whitespaces=$(($max_chars-$(sed -nl1000 'l' <<< "$graph" | grep -Eo '\\\\|\||\/|\ |\*|_' | wc -l)))
whitespaces=$(seq -s' ' $whitespaces|tr -d '[:digit:]')
# Show hashes besides the tree ...
#graph_all="$graph_all$graph$(printf '%7s' "$hash")$whitespaces \n"
# ... or in an own column
graph_all="$graph_all$graph$whitespaces\n"
hash_all="$hash_all$(printf '%7s' "$hash") \n"
# Format all other columns
time_all="$time_all$(printf '%12s' "$time") \n"
branch=${branch//1;32m/${branch_style:-1;32}m}
branch=${branch//1;36m/${head_style:-1;36}m}
branch=${branch//1;33m/${tag_style:-1;33}m}
branch_all="$branch_all$(printf '%15s' "$branch")\n"
message_all="$message_all$message\n"
done < <(cd "${1:-"$PWD"}" && git log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --pretty=format:'+%C(bold 214)%<(7,trunc)%h%C(reset)+%C(dim white)%>(12,trunc)%cr%C(reset)+%C(auto)%>(15,trunc)%D%C(reset)+%C(white)%s%C(reset)' && echo);
# Paste the columns together and show the table-like output
paste -d' ' <(echo -e "$time_all") <(echo -e "$branch_all") <(echo -e "$graph_all") <(echo -e "$hash_all") <(echo -e "$message_all")
3) as an git alias:
Maybe the most comfortable way is to add a git alias in your .gitconfig
[color "decorate"]
HEAD = bold blink italic 196
branch = 214
tag = bold 222
[alias]
count-log = log --all --graph --pretty=format:' '
tably-log = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --pretty=format:'+%C(bold 214)%<(7,trunc)%h%C(reset)+%C(dim white)%>(12,trunc)%cr%C(reset)+%C(auto)%>(15,trunc)%D%C(reset)+%C(white)%s%C(reset)'
tably = !bash -c '" \
while IFS=+ read -r graph;do \
chars_count=$(sed -nl1000 \"l\" <<< \"$graph\" | grep -Eo \"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|\\||\\/|\\ |\\*|_\" | wc -l); \
[[ $chars_count -gt ${max_chars:-0} ]] && max_chars=$chars_count; \
done < <(git count-log && echo); \
while IFS=+ read -r graph hash time branch message;do \
chars=$(sed -nl1000 \"l\" <<< \"$graph\" | grep -Eo \"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|\\||\\/|\\ |\\*|_\" | wc -l); \
whitespaces=$(($max_chars-$chars)); \
whitespaces=$(seq -s\" \" $whitespaces|tr -d \"[:digit:]\"); \
graph_all=\"$graph_all$graph$whitespaces\n\"; \
hash_all=\"$hash_all$(printf \"%7s\" \"$hash\") \n\"; \
time_all=\"$time_all$(printf \"%12s\" \"$time\") \n\"; \
branch_all=\"$branch_all$(printf \"%15s\" \"$branch\")\n\"; \
message_all=\"$message_all$message\n\"; \
done < <(git tably-log && echo); \
paste -d\" \" <(echo -e \"$time_all\") <(echo -e \"$branch_all\") <(echo -e \"$graph_all\") \
<(echo -e \"$hash_all\") <(echo -e \"$message_all\"); \
'"
Than just call git tably under any project path.
Git is so powerful that you can change head, tags, ... directly as shown above and taken from here.
Another fancy option is to select tree colors you prefer the most with
[log]
graphColors = bold 160, blink 231 bold 239, bold 166, bold black 214, bold green, bold 24, cyan
that gives you crazy looking but always table-like git log outputs
Too much blinking! Just to demonstrate what is possible. Too few specified colors leads to color repetitions.
A complete .gitconfig reference is just one click away.
EDIT 6: Due to your positive votes I improved the snippet. Now you can feed it with almost any git log command and don't have to adapt the code any more. Try it!
How does it work?
- define your Git log commands in your .gitconfig as always (formatted like below)
- define a positive tree column number, where the git graph is shown (optional)
Then just call
git tably YourLogAlias
under any git project path or
git tably YourLogAlias TreeColNumber
where TreeColNumber overwrites an always defined value from above.
git tably YourLogAlias | less -r
will pipe the output into less which is useful for huge histories.
Your Git log alias must follow these format rules:
each column has to be indicated by a column delimiter which you have to choose and may cause problems if not unique
i.e.
^in...format:'^%h^%cr^%s'results in a tree, a hash, a time and a commit columnbefore every commit placeholder in your log command you have to use
%><(<N>[,ltrunc|mtrunc|trunc]), with one of the trunc options(for syntax explanations see ),
however the last commit placeholder of any newline can be used without it
i.e.
...format:'^%<(7,trunc)%h^%<(12,trunc)%cr^%s'if extra characters are needed for decoration like
(committer:,<and>)in...%C(dim white)(committer: %cn% <%ce>)%C(reset)...to get a table-like output they must be written directly before and after the commit placeholder
i.e.
...%C(dim white)%<(25,trunc)(committer: %cn%<(25,trunc) <%ce>)%C(reset)...using column colors like
%C(white)...%C(rest)needs the--coloroption for a colored outputi.e.
...--color...format:'^%C(white)%<(7,trunc)%h%C(rest)...if you use the
--statoption or similar, add a newline%nat the endi.e.
...--stat...format:'...%n'...you can place the git graph at every column as long as you use no newline or only empty ones
format:'...%n'for non-empty newlines
...%n%CommitPlaceholder...you can place the git graph at every column n+1 only if all n-th columns of each line exist and use the same widththe name of your defined tree column number for a specific log alias have to be
YourLogAlias-col
Compared to normal git log output this one is slow but nice.
Now the improved snippet to add to your .gitconfig
[color "decorate"]
HEAD = bold blink italic 196
branch = 214
tag = bold 222
[alias]
# Delimiter used in every mylog alias as column seperator
delim = ^
# Short overview about the last hashes without graph
mylog = log --all --decorate=short --color --pretty=format:'^%C(dim white)%>(12,trunc)%cr%C(reset)^%C(bold 214)%<(7,trunc)%h%C(reset)' -5
# Log with hashes besides graph tree
mylog2 = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --pretty=format:'%C(bold 214)%<(7,trunc)%h%C(reset)^%C(dim white)%>(12,trunc)%cr%C(reset)^%C(auto)%>(15,trunc)%D%C(reset)^%C(white)%<(80,trunc)%s%C(reset)'
mylog2-col= 3
# Log with hashes in an own column and more time data
mylog3 = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --pretty=format:'^%C(dim white)%>(12,trunc)%cr%C(reset)^%C(cyan)%<(10,trunc)%cs%C(reset)^%C(bold 214)%<(7,trunc)%h%C(reset)^%C(auto)%<(15,trunc)%D%C(reset)^%C(white)%s%C(reset)'
mylog3-col= 4
tably = !bash -c '" \
\
\
declare -A col_length; \
apost=$(echo -e \"\\u0027\"); \
delim=$(git config alias.delim); \
git_log_cmd=$(git config alias.$1); \
git_tre_col=${2:-$(git config alias.$1-col)}; \
[[ -z "$git_tre_col" ]] && git_tre_col=1; \
[[ -z "$git_log_cmd" ]] && { git $1;exit; }; \
\
\
i=0; \
n=0; \
while IFS= read -r line;do \
((n++)); \
while read -d\"$delim\" -r col_info;do \
((i++)); \
[[ -z \"$col_info\" ]] && col_length[\"$n:$i\"]=${col_length[\"${last[$i]:-1}:$i\"]} && ((i--)) && continue; \
[[ $i -gt ${i_max:-0} ]] && i_max=$i; \
col_length[\"$n:$i\"]=$(grep -Eo \"\\([0-9]*,[lm]*trunc\\)\" <<< \"$col_info\" | grep -Eo \"[0-9]*\" | head -n 1); \
[[ -n \"${col_length[\"$n:$i\"]}\" ]] && last[$i]=$n; \
chars_extra=$(grep -Eo \"trunc\\).*\" <<< \"$col_info\"); \
chars_extra=${chars_extra#trunc)}; \
chars_begin=${chars_extra%%\\%*}; \
chars_extra=${chars_extra%$apost*}; \
chars_extra=${chars_extra#*\\%}; \
case \" ad aD ae aE ai aI al aL an aN ar as at b B cd cD ce cE ci cI cl cL cn cN cr \
cs ct d D e f G? gd gD ge gE GF GG GK gn gN GP gs GS GT h H N p P s S t T \" in \
*\" ${chars_extra:0:2} \"*) \
chars_extra=${chars_extra:2}; \
chars_after=${chars_extra%%\\%*}; \
;; \
*\" ${chars_extra:0:1} \"*) \
chars_extra=${chars_extra:1}; \
chars_after=${chars_extra%%\\%*}; \
;; \
*) \
echo \"No Placeholder found. Probably no tablelike output.\"; \
continue; \
;; \
esac; \
if [[ -n \"$chars_begin$chars_after\" ]];then \
len_extra=$(echo \"$chars_begin$chars_after\" | wc -m); \
col_length["$n:$i"]=$((${col_length["$n:$i"]}+$len_extra-1)); \
fi; \
done <<< \"${line#*=format:}$delim\"; \
i=1; \
done <<< \"$(echo -e \"${git_log_cmd//\\%n/\\\\n}\")\"; \
\
\
git_log_fst_part=\"${git_log_cmd%%\"$apost\"*}\"; \
git_log_lst_part=\"${git_log_cmd##*\"$apost\"}\"; \
git_log_tre_part=\"${git_log_cmd%%\"$delim\"*}\"; \
git_log_tre_part=\"${git_log_tre_part##*\"$apost\"}\"; \
git_log_cmd_count=\"$git_log_fst_part$apost $git_log_tre_part$apost$git_log_lst_part\"; \
col_length[\"1:1\"]=$(eval git \"${git_log_cmd_count// --color}\" | wc -L); \
\
\
i=0; \
while IFS=\"$delim\" read -r graph rest;do \
((i++)); \
graph_line[$i]=\"$graph\"; \
done < <(eval git \"${git_log_cmd/ --color}\" && echo); \
\
\
i=0; \
l=0; \
while IFS= read -r line;do \
c=0; \
((i++)); \
((l++)); \
[[ $l -gt $n ]] && l=1; \
while IFS= read -d\"$delim\" -r col_content;do \
((c++)); \
[[ $c -le $git_tre_col ]] && c_corr=-1 || c_corr=0; \
if [[ $c -eq 1 ]];then \
[[ \"${col_content/\\*}\" = \"$col_content\" ]] && [[ $l -eq 1 ]] && l=$n; \
count=$(wc -L <<< \"${graph_line[$i]}\"); \
whitespaces=$(seq -s\" \" $((${col_length[\"1:1\"]}-$count))|tr -d \"[:digit:]\"); \
col_content[$git_tre_col]=\"${col_content}$whitespaces\"; \
else \
col_content[$c+$c_corr]=\"$(printf \"%-${col_length[\"$l:$c\"]}s\" \"${col_content:-\"\"}\")\"; \
fi; \
done <<< \"$line$delim\"; \
for ((k=$c+1;k<=$i_max;k++));do \
[[ $k -le $git_tre_col ]] && c_corr=-1 || c_corr=0; \
col_content[$k+$c_corr]=\"$(printf \"%-${col_length[\"$l:$k\"]:-${col_length[\"${last[$k]:-1}:$k\"]:-0}}s\" \"\")\"; \
done; \
unset col_content[0]; \
echo -e \"${col_content[*]}\"; \
unset col_content[*]; \
done < <(eval git \"$git_log_cmd\" && echo); \
"' "git-tably"
where in tably
- the first paragraph loads the delim(iter), YourLogAlias and YourLogAlias-col into shell variables
- the second reads out the length for each column
- the third counts the max. length of the tree
- the fourth loads the tree into an array
- the fifth organizes and print the table-like output
Results:
or with new TreeColNumber on the fly
AGAIN: Have fun to style your own clean table-like looking output to your needs.
You can also share your preferred formatted Git log alias in the comments. From time to time I will include the most rated ones in the text above and add images too.
Based on a Graphviz script I found in an answer to a related question, I've hacked up a Ruby script that creates a summary view of a Git repository. It elides all linear history and just shows "interesting" commits, i.e. those with multiple parents, multiple children, or pointed to by a branch or tag. Here's a snippet of the graph it generates for jQuery:
git-big-picture and BranchMaster are similar tools that try to show only the high-level structure of a graph, by only displaying how tags, branches, merges, etc. are related.
This question has some more options.
I've added three custom commands: git tree, git stree and git vtree. I'll go over them in that order.
[alias]
tree = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) %C(auto)%d%C(reset)\n %C(black)[%cr]%C(reset) %x09%C(black)%an: %s %C(reset)'
With git stree and git vtree, I've use Bash to help with the formatting.
[alias]
logx = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset)+%C(dim black)(%cr)%C(reset)+%C(auto)%d%C(reset)++\n+++ %C(bold black)%an%C(reset)%C(black): %s%C(reset)'
stree = !bash -c '" \
while IFS=+ read -r hash time branch message; do \
timelength=$(echo \"$time\" | sed -r \"s:[^ ][[]([0-9]{1,2}(;[0-9]{1,2})?)?m::g\"); \
timelength=$(echo \"16+${#time}-${#timelength}\" | bc); \
printf \"%${timelength}s %s %s %s\n\" \"$time\" \"$hash\" \"$branch\" \"\"; \
done < <(git logx && echo);"'
[alias]
logx = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset)+%C(dim black)(%cr)%C(reset)+%C(auto)%d%C(reset)++\n+++ %C(bold black)%an%C(reset)%C(black): %s%C(reset)'
vtree = !bash -c '" \
while IFS=+ read -r hash time branch message; do \
timelength=$(echo \"$time\" | sed -r \"s:[^ ][[]([0-9]{1,2}(;[0-9]{1,2})?)?m::g\"); \
timelength=$(echo \"16+${#time}-${#timelength}\" | bc); \
printf \"%${timelength}s %s %s %s\n\" \"$time\" \"$hash\" \"$branch\" \"$message\"; \
done < <(git logx && echo);"'
This works with Git version 1.9a. The color value 'auto' is apparently making its debut in this release. It's a nice addition because branch names will get a different color. This makes it easier to distinguish between local and remote branches for instance.
For more detailed textual output, try:
git log --graph --date-order -C -M --pretty=format:"<%h> %ad [%an] %Cgreen%d%Creset %s" --all --date=short
You can add an alias in file $HOME/.gitconfig:
[alias]
graph = log --graph --date-order -C -M --pretty=format:\"<%h> %ad [%an] %Cgreen%d%Creset %s\" --all --date=short
This is my take on this matter:
