Git Log#

A Git repo is a (potentially very long) list of commits, where each commit represents the full state of the repository at a given point in time.

The git log command shows a history of the commits in a repository. This is what makes Git a version control system. You can see:

• Who made a commit
• When the commit was made
• What was changed

A Commit Hash#

Each commit has a unique identifier called a “commit hash”. This is a long string of characters that uniquely identifies the commit. Here’s an example of mine:

5ba786fcc93e8092831c01e71444b9baa2228a4f

For convenience, you can refer to any commit or change within Git by using the first 7 characters of its hash. For mine, that’s 5ba786f.

Log Flags#

As you know, git log shows you the history of commits in your repo. There are a few flags I like to use from time to time to make the output easier to read.

The first is –decorate. It can be one of:

• short (the default)
• full (shows the full ref name)
• no (no decoration)

Run git log --decorate=full. You should see that instead of just using your branch name, it will show the full ref name. A ref is just a pointer to a commit. All branches are refs, but not all refs are branches.

Run git log --decorate=no. You should see that the branch names are no longer shown at all.

The second is –oneline. This flag will show you a more compact view of the log. I use this one all the time, it just makes it so much easier to see what’s going on.

git log --oneline

Log Remote#

The git log command isn’t only useful for your local repo. You can log the commits of a remote repo as well!

git log remote/branch

For example, if you wanted to see the commits of a branch named alperen from a remote named origin you would run:

git log origin/alperen