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 -L <start>,<end>:<file>::
  81 -L :<funcname>:<file>::
  82         Trace the evolution of the line range given by "<start>,<end>"
  83         (or the function name regex <funcname>) within the <file>.  You may
  84         not give any pathspec limiters.  This is currently limited to
  85         a walk starting from a single revision, i.e., you may only
  86         give zero or one positive revision arguments, and
  87         <start> and <end> (or <funcname>) must exist in the starting revision.
  88         You can specify this option more than once. Implies `--patch`.
  89         Patch output can be suppressed using `--no-patch`, but other diff formats
  90         (namely `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--shortstat`, `--dirstat`, `--summary`,
  91         `--name-only`, `--name-status`, `--check`) are not currently implemented.
  92 +
  93 include::line-range-format.txt[]
  94
  95 <revision range>::
  96         Show only commits in the specified revision range.  When no
  97         <revision range> is specified, it defaults to `HEAD` (i.e. the
  98         whole history leading to the current commit).  `origin..HEAD`
  99         specifies all the commits reachable from the current commit
 100         (i.e. `HEAD`), but not from `origin`. For a complete list of
 101         ways to spell <revision range>, see the 'Specifying Ranges'
 102         section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
 103
 104 [--] <path>...::
 105         Show only commits that are enough to explain how the files
 106         that match the specified paths came to be.  See 'History
 107         Simplification' below for details and other simplification
 108         modes.
 109 +
 110 Paths may need to be prefixed with `--` to separate them from
 111 options or the revision range, when confusion arises.
 112
 113 include::rev-list-options.txt[]
 114
 115 include::pretty-formats.txt[]
 116
 117 DIFF FORMATTING
 118 ---------------
 119
 120 By default, `git log` does not generate any diff output. The options
 121 below can be used to show the changes made by each commit.
 122
 123 Note that unless one of `-c`, `--cc`, or `-m` is given, merge commits
 124 will never show a diff, even if a diff format like `--patch` is
 125 selected, nor will they match search options like `-S`. The exception is
 126 when `--first-parent` is in use, in which merges are treated like normal
 127 single-parent commits (this can be overridden by providing a
 128 combined-diff option or with `--no-diff-merges`).
 129
 130 -c::
 131         With this option, diff output for a merge commit
 132         shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
 133         simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
 134         and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
 135         which were modified from all parents.
 136
 137 --cc::
 138         This flag implies the `-c` option and further compresses the
 139         patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
 140         the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
 141         one of them without modification.
 142
 143 --combined-all-paths::
 144         This flag causes combined diffs (used for merge commits) to
 145         list the name of the file from all parents.  It thus only has
 146         effect when -c or --cc are specified, and is likely only
 147         useful if filename changes are detected (i.e. when either
 148         rename or copy detection have been requested).
 149
 150 -m::
 151         This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
 152         regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
 153         and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
 154         the first parent is shown when `--first-parent` option is given;
 155         in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
 156         brought _into_ the then-current branch.
 157
 158 --diff-merges=off::
 159 --no-diff-merges::
 160         Disable output of diffs for merge commits (default). Useful to
 161         override `-m`, `-c`, or `--cc`.
 162
 163 :git-log: 1
 164 include::diff-options.txt[]
 165
 166 include::diff-generate-patch.txt[]
 167
 168 EXAMPLES
 169 --------
 170 `git log --no-merges`::
 171
 172         Show the whole commit history, but skip any merges
 173
 174 `git log v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi`::
 175
 176         Show all commits since version 'v2.6.12' that changed any file
 177         in the `include/scsi` or `drivers/scsi` subdirectories
 178
 179 `git log --since="2 weeks ago" -- gitk`::
 180
 181         Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file 'gitk'.
 182         The `--` is necessary to avoid confusion with the *branch* named
 183         'gitk'
 184
 185 `git log --name-status release..test`::
 186
 187         Show the commits that are in the "test" branch but not yet
 188         in the "release" branch, along with the list of paths
 189         each commit modifies.
 190
 191 `git log --follow builtin/rev-list.c`::
 192
 193         Shows the commits that changed `builtin/rev-list.c`, including
 194         those commits that occurred before the file was given its
 195         present name.
 196
 197 `git log --branches --not --remotes=origin`::
 198
 199         Shows all commits that are in any of local branches but not in
 200         any of remote-tracking branches for 'origin' (what you have that
 201         origin doesn't).
 202
 203 `git log master --not --remotes=*/master`::
 204
 205         Shows all commits that are in local master but not in any remote
 206         repository master branches.
 207
 208 `git log -p -m --first-parent`::
 209
 210         Shows the history including change diffs, but only from the
 211         ``main branch'' perspective, skipping commits that come from merged
 212         branches, and showing full diffs of changes introduced by the merges.
 213         This makes sense only when following a strict policy of merging all
 214         topic branches when staying on a single integration branch.
 215
 216 `git log -L '/int main/',/^}/:main.c`::
 217
 218         Shows how the function `main()` in the file `main.c` evolved
 219         over time.
 220
 221 `git log -3`::
 222
 223         Limits the number of commits to show to 3.
 224
 225 DISCUSSION
 226 ----------
 227
 228 include::i18n.txt[]
 229
 230 CONFIGURATION
 231 -------------
 232
 233 See linkgit:git-config[1] for core variables and linkgit:git-diff[1]
 234 for settings related to diff generation.
 235
 236 format.pretty::
 237         Default for the `--format` option.  (See 'Pretty Formats' above.)
 238         Defaults to `medium`.
 239
 240 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
 241         Encoding to use when displaying logs.  (See 'Discussion' above.)
 242         Defaults to the value of `i18n.commitEncoding` if set, and UTF-8
 243         otherwise.
 244
 245 log.date::
 246         Default format for human-readable dates.  (Compare the
 247         `--date` option.)  Defaults to "default", which means to write
 248         dates like `Sat May 8 19:35:34 2010 -0500`.
 249 +
 250 If the format is set to "auto:foo" and the pager is in use, format
 251 "foo" will be the used for the date format. Otherwise "default" will
 252 be used.
 253
 254 log.follow::
 255         If `true`, `git log` will act as if the `--follow` option was used when
 256         a single <path> is given.  This has the same limitations as `--follow`,
 257         i.e. it cannot be used to follow multiple files and does not work well
 258         on non-linear history.
 259
 260 log.showRoot::
 261         If `false`, `git log` and related commands will not treat the
 262         initial commit as a big creation event.  Any root commits in
 263         `git log -p` output would be shown without a diff attached.
 264         The default is `true`.
 265
 266 log.showSignature::
 267         If `true`, `git log` and related commands will act as if the
 268         `--show-signature` option was passed to them.
 269
 270 mailmap.*::
 271         See linkgit:git-shortlog[1].
 272
 273 notes.displayRef::
 274         Which refs, in addition to the default set by `core.notesRef`
 275         or `GIT_NOTES_REF`, to read notes from when showing commit
 276         messages with the `log` family of commands.  See
 277         linkgit:git-notes[1].
 278 +
 279 May be an unabbreviated ref name or a glob and may be specified
 280 multiple times.  A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist,
 281 but a glob that does not match any refs is silently ignored.
 282 +
 283 This setting can be disabled by the `--no-notes` option,
 284 overridden by the `GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF` environment variable,
 285 and overridden by the `--notes=<ref>` option.
 286
 287 GIT
 288 ---
 289 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite