Unable to show a Git tree in terminal

Question

Killswitchcollective.com's old article, 30 June 2009, has the following inputs and outputs

git co master
git merge [your_branch]
git push

upstream    A-B-C-D-E            A-B-C-D-E-F-G
                 \        ---->               \
your branch       C-D-E                        G

I am interested how you get the tree like-view of commits in your terminal without using Gitk or Gitx in OS/X.

How can you get the tree-like view of commits in terminal?

Because

It's not important to the question, but the article in question is no longer available. A cached copy is available via the Internet Archive: web.archive.org/web/20110831142839/http://… – Decompound

Answer 1

How can you get the tree-like view of commits in terminal?

git log --graph --oneline --all

is a good start.

You may get some strange letters. They are ASCII codes for colors and structure. To solve this problem add the following to your .bashrc:

export LESS="-R"

such that you do not need use Tig's ASCII filter by

git log --graph --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit | tig   // Masi needed this 

The article text-based graph from Git-ready contains other options:

git log --graph --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit

Regarding the article you mention, I would go with Pod's answer: ad-hoc hand-made output.

---

Jakub Narębski mentions in the comments tig, a ncurses-based text-mode interface for git. See their releases.
It added a --graph option back in 2007.

Choleric

I just tested it on my repo. It works but I am on Windows with MSysGit1.6.3. – Choleric

files.getdropbox.com is blocked here at work :( I will see your picture in about one hour, time to get home. – Choleric

@Vonc: I now typed two for the first command. I get a similar view as in the picture for the second command. – Testamentary

There is also 'tig', text-mode interface for git (using ncurses), which had graphical history view in terminal before there was '--graph' option to git-log. – Selenography

I find --decorate to be indispensable on this sort of a display as well -- it shows you ref names (branches, remote and local) alongside the abbreviated commit name. – Sihonn

@MattEnright I agree, and use it here: stackoverflow.com/questions/7022890/…. But beware of the colors used by decorate: https://mcmap.net/q/12731/-color-in-git-log/… – Choleric

@MattEnright and for certain tasks, decorate isn't the best option: stackoverflow.com/questions/5659273/… – Choleric

I've found out that this is an easier way to remember git log --graph --oneline – Muttonhead

Answer 2

A solution is to create an Alias in your .gitconfig and call it easily:

[alias]
    tree = log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit

And when you call it next time, you'll use:

git tree

To put it in your ~/.gitconfig without having to edit it, you can do:

git config --global alias.tree "log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit"  

(If you don't use the --global it will put it in the .git/config of your current repo.)

Coranto

How is this not a default alias? I guess it would make Git's CLI slightly less infuriating to use and we can't have that... – Bean

Answer 3

git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph

A visual tree with branch names included.

Use this to add it as an alias

git config --global alias.tree "log --oneline --decorate --all --graph"

You call it with

git tree

Usk

Very nice, this one. I use it in combination with less -S as described here, to prevent wrapped lines from obfuscating the tree. – Shigella

Sebastian: ty 4 alias – Blimp

Answer 4

tig

If you want a interactive tree, you can use tig. It can be installed by brew on OSX and apt-get in Linux.

brew install tig
tig

This is what you get:

Alexina

Can you get such a tree as in VonC's answer by Tig currently? We use Tig in VonC's answer only as Ascii filter. – Testamentary

Answer 5

I would suggest anyone to write down the full command

git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph

rather than create an alias.

It's good to get the commands into your head, so you know it by heart i.e. do not depend on aliases when you change machines.

Lox

It is actually git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph, after the mnemonic git log a dog ;) – Choleric

@Choleric The final result is the same. Anyway, I agree with you. Thanks for the feedback. – Lox

Yes, that is what the smiley ;) at the end of my previous comment was trying (imperfectly) to convey: you can use those option in any order you want. I just find "log a dog" funny :) – Choleric

Or you could scp ~/.bashrc root@remote:~/ and your aliases move over real quick. – Columbine

Answer 6

Keeping your commands short will make them easier to remember:

git log --graph --oneline

Germanize