2289 Log Bfb042dd

Log Workflow

View commit history and logs.

Prerequisites

• Git repository initialized
• Commits to view

Basic Log Commands

# Default log
git log

# One line per commit
git log --oneline

# With graph
git log --oneline --graph

# All branches
git log --oneline --graph --all

Log Formatting

Compact Formats

# One line
git log --oneline

# Short format
git log --format=short

# Full format
git log --format=full

# Custom format
git log --format="%h %an %s"

Custom Format Placeholders

Example custom format:

git log --format="%h - %an, %ar : %s"
# abc1234 - John Doe, 2 days ago : Add feature

Visual Formats

# Graph view
git log --graph --oneline --all

# Decorated (show branches/tags)
git log --oneline --decorate

# Stat summary
git log --stat

# Full patch
git log -p

Filtering Logs

By Count

# Last N commits
git log -5

# Skip first N
git log --skip=5 -10

By Date

# After date
git log --after="2024-01-01"

# Before date
git log --before="2024-12-31"

# Date range
git log --after="2024-01-01" --before="2024-06-30"

# Relative dates
git log --after="2 weeks ago"
git log --since="yesterday"

By Author

# By author name
git log --author="John"

# By email
git log --author="john@example.com"

# Multiple authors
git log --author="John\|Jane"

By Message

# Search in commit message
git log --grep="bug fix"

# Case insensitive
git log --grep="BUG" -i

# Regex
git log --grep="^feat:"

By File

# Commits affecting file
git log -- path/to/file.js

# Multiple files
git log -- src/*.js tests/*.js

# Renamed files
git log --follow -- new-name.js

By Content

# Commits changing specific string
git log -S"functionName"

# With regex
git log -G"function.*Name"

By Branch/Range

# Commits in branch not in main
git log main..feature/branch

# Commits in either, not both
git log main...feature/branch

# Commits reachable from branch
git log feature/branch

Common Use Cases

View Recent Activity

git log --oneline -20

Find When Something Changed

# When was file changed
git log --oneline -- path/to/file

# What changed in file
git log -p -- path/to/file

Find Who Changed Something

# Line-by-line blame
git blame path/to/file

# With log
git log --format="%h %an %s" -- path/to/file

Review PR Commits

# Commits in branch vs main
git log main..feature/branch --oneline

# With changes
git log main..feature/branch -p

Find Breaking Commit

# Bisect for bug introduction
git bisect start
git bisect bad HEAD
git bisect good v1.0.0
# Test each commit Git checks out
git bisect good  # or bad
git bisect reset

Daily Standup Log

# My commits since yesterday
git log --author="$(git config user.name)" --since="yesterday" --oneline

Output Format

Present log results as:

Commit History
──────────────

Recent commits (last 10):

  abc1234  2h ago   John Doe     feat: add user auth
  def5678  1d ago   Jane Smith   fix: resolve login bug
  ghi9012  2d ago   John Doe     docs: update README

Summary:
  Total: 10 commits
  Authors: 2
  Date range: Dec 20 - Dec 25, 2024

Useful Aliases

# Add to ~/.gitconfig
[alias]
  lg = log --oneline --graph --decorate
  ll = log --format='%h %an %s' -10
  hist = log --pretty=format:'%h %ad | %s%d [%an]' --date=short
  today = log --since=midnight --oneline
  week = log --since='1 week ago' --oneline

Quick Reference