Documentation/git-log.txt

   1 git-log(1)
   2 ==========
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-log - Show commit logs
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git log' [<options>] [<revision range>] [[--] <path>...]
  13
  14 DESCRIPTION
  15 -----------
  16 Shows the commit logs.
  17
  18 :git-log: 1
  19 include::rev-list-description.txt[]
  20
  21 The command takes options applicable to the linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
  22 command to control what is shown and how, and options applicable to
  23 the linkgit:git-diff[1] command to control how the changes
  24 each commit introduces are shown.
  25
  26
  27 OPTIONS
  28 -------
  29
  30 --follow::
  31         Continue listing the history of a file beyond renames
  32         (works only for a single file).
  33
  34 --no-decorate::
  35 --decorate[=short|full|auto|no]::
  36         Print out the ref names of any commits that are shown. If 'short' is
  37         specified, the ref name prefixes 'refs/heads/', 'refs/tags/' and
  38         'refs/remotes/' will not be printed. If 'full' is specified, the
  39         full ref name (including prefix) will be printed. If 'auto' is
  40         specified, then if the output is going to a terminal, the ref names
  41         are shown as if 'short' were given, otherwise no ref names are
  42         shown. The default option is 'short'.
  43
  44 --decorate-refs=<pattern>::
  45 --decorate-refs-exclude=<pattern>::
  46         If no `--decorate-refs` is given, pretend as if all refs were
  47         included.  For each candidate, do not use it for decoration if it
  48         matches any patterns given to `--decorate-refs-exclude` or if it
  49         doesn't match any of the patterns given to `--decorate-refs`. The
  50         `log.excludeDecoration` config option allows excluding refs from
  51         the decorations, but an explicit `--decorate-refs` pattern will
  52         override a match in `log.excludeDecoration`.
  53
  54 --source::
  55         Print out the ref name given on the command line by which each
  56         commit was reached.
  57
  58 --[no-]mailmap::
  59 --[no-]use-mailmap::
  60         Use mailmap file to map author and committer names and email
  61         addresses to canonical real names and email addresses. See
  62         linkgit:git-shortlog[1].
  63
  64 --full-diff::
  65         Without this flag, `git log -p <path>...` shows commits that
  66         touch the specified paths, and diffs about the same specified
  67         paths.  With this, the full diff is shown for commits that touch
  68         the specified paths; this means that "<path>..." limits only
  69         commits, and doesn't limit diff for those commits.
  70 +
  71 Note that this affects all diff-based output types, e.g. those
  72 produced by `--stat`, etc.
  73
  74 --log-size::
  75         Include a line ``log size <number>'' in the output for each commit,
  76         where <number> is the length of that commit's message in bytes.
  77         Intended to speed up tools that read log messages from `git log`
  78         output by allowing them to allocate space in advance.
  79
  80 include::line-range-options.txt[]
  81
  82 <revision range>::
  83         Show only commits in the specified revision range.  When no
  84         <revision range> is specified, it defaults to `HEAD` (i.e. the
  85         whole history leading to the current commit).  `origin..HEAD`
  86         specifies all the commits reachable from the current commit
  87         (i.e. `HEAD`), but not from `origin`. For a complete list of
  88         ways to spell <revision range>, see the 'Specifying Ranges'
  89         section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
  90
  91 [--] <path>...::
  92         Show only commits that are enough to explain how the files
  93         that match the specified paths came to be.  See 'History
  94         Simplification' below for details and other simplification
  95         modes.
  96 +
  97 Paths may need to be prefixed with `--` to separate them from
  98 options or the revision range, when confusion arises.
  99
 100 include::rev-list-options.txt[]
 101
 102 include::pretty-formats.txt[]
 103
 104 DIFF FORMATTING
 105 ---------------
 106
 107 By default, `git log` does not generate any diff output. The options
 108 below can be used to show the changes made by each commit.
 109
 110 Note that unless one of `-c`, `--cc`, or `-m` is given, merge commits
 111 will never show a diff, even if a diff format like `--patch` is
 112 selected, nor will they match search options like `-S`. The exception is
 113 when `--first-parent` is in use, in which merges are treated like normal
 114 single-parent commits (this can be overridden by providing a
 115 combined-diff option or with `--no-diff-merges`).
 116
 117 -c::
 118         With this option, diff output for a merge commit
 119         shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
 120         simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
 121         and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
 122         which were modified from all parents.
 123
 124 --cc::
 125         This flag implies the `-c` option and further compresses the
 126         patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
 127         the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
 128         one of them without modification.
 129
 130 --combined-all-paths::
 131         This flag causes combined diffs (used for merge commits) to
 132         list the name of the file from all parents.  It thus only has
 133         effect when -c or --cc are specified, and is likely only
 134         useful if filename changes are detected (i.e. when either
 135         rename or copy detection have been requested).
 136
 137 -m::
 138         This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
 139         regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
 140         and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
 141         the first parent is shown when `--first-parent` option is given;
 142         in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
 143         brought _into_ the then-current branch.
 144
 145 --diff-merges=off::
 146 --no-diff-merges::
 147         Disable output of diffs for merge commits (default). Useful to
 148         override `-m`, `-c`, or `--cc`.
 149
 150 :git-log: 1
 151 include::diff-options.txt[]
 152
 153 include::diff-generate-patch.txt[]
 154
 155 EXAMPLES
 156 --------
 157 `git log --no-merges`::
 158
 159         Show the whole commit history, but skip any merges
 160
 161 `git log v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi`::
 162
 163         Show all commits since version 'v2.6.12' that changed any file
 164         in the `include/scsi` or `drivers/scsi` subdirectories
 165
 166 `git log --since="2 weeks ago" -- gitk`::
 167
 168         Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file 'gitk'.
 169         The `--` is necessary to avoid confusion with the *branch* named
 170         'gitk'
 171
 172 `git log --name-status release..test`::
 173
 174         Show the commits that are in the "test" branch but not yet
 175         in the "release" branch, along with the list of paths
 176         each commit modifies.
 177
 178 `git log --follow builtin/rev-list.c`::
 179
 180         Shows the commits that changed `builtin/rev-list.c`, including
 181         those commits that occurred before the file was given its
 182         present name.
 183
 184 `git log --branches --not --remotes=origin`::
 185
 186         Shows all commits that are in any of local branches but not in
 187         any of remote-tracking branches for 'origin' (what you have that
 188         origin doesn't).
 189
 190 `git log master --not --remotes=*/master`::
 191
 192         Shows all commits that are in local master but not in any remote
 193         repository master branches.
 194
 195 `git log -p -m --first-parent`::
 196
 197         Shows the history including change diffs, but only from the
 198         ``main branch'' perspective, skipping commits that come from merged
 199         branches, and showing full diffs of changes introduced by the merges.
 200         This makes sense only when following a strict policy of merging all
 201         topic branches when staying on a single integration branch.
 202
 203 `git log -L '/int main/',/^}/:main.c`::
 204
 205         Shows how the function `main()` in the file `main.c` evolved
 206         over time.
 207
 208 `git log -3`::
 209
 210         Limits the number of commits to show to 3.
 211
 212 DISCUSSION
 213 ----------
 214
 215 include::i18n.txt[]
 216
 217 CONFIGURATION
 218 -------------
 219
 220 See linkgit:git-config[1] for core variables and linkgit:git-diff[1]
 221 for settings related to diff generation.
 222
 223 format.pretty::
 224         Default for the `--format` option.  (See 'Pretty Formats' above.)
 225         Defaults to `medium`.
 226
 227 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
 228         Encoding to use when displaying logs.  (See 'Discussion' above.)
 229         Defaults to the value of `i18n.commitEncoding` if set, and UTF-8
 230         otherwise.
 231
 232 log.date::
 233         Default format for human-readable dates.  (Compare the
 234         `--date` option.)  Defaults to "default", which means to write
 235         dates like `Sat May 8 19:35:34 2010 -0500`.
 236 +
 237 If the format is set to "auto:foo" and the pager is in use, format
 238 "foo" will be the used for the date format. Otherwise "default" will
 239 be used.
 240
 241 log.follow::
 242         If `true`, `git log` will act as if the `--follow` option was used when
 243         a single <path> is given.  This has the same limitations as `--follow`,
 244         i.e. it cannot be used to follow multiple files and does not work well
 245         on non-linear history.
 246
 247 log.showRoot::
 248         If `false`, `git log` and related commands will not treat the
 249         initial commit as a big creation event.  Any root commits in
 250         `git log -p` output would be shown without a diff attached.
 251         The default is `true`.
 252
 253 log.showSignature::
 254         If `true`, `git log` and related commands will act as if the
 255         `--show-signature` option was passed to them.
 256
 257 mailmap.*::
 258         See linkgit:git-shortlog[1].
 259
 260 notes.displayRef::
 261         Which refs, in addition to the default set by `core.notesRef`
 262         or `GIT_NOTES_REF`, to read notes from when showing commit
 263         messages with the `log` family of commands.  See
 264         linkgit:git-notes[1].
 265 +
 266 May be an unabbreviated ref name or a glob and may be specified
 267 multiple times.  A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist,
 268 but a glob that does not match any refs is silently ignored.
 269 +
 270 This setting can be disabled by the `--no-notes` option,
 271 overridden by the `GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF` environment variable,
 272 and overridden by the `--notes=<ref>` option.
 273
 274 GIT
 275 ---
 276 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite