How can I get a list of Git branches, ordered by most recent commit?

Question

I want to get a list of all the branches in a Git repository with the "freshest" branches at the top, where the "freshest" branch is the one that's been committed to most recently (and is, therefore, more likely to be one I want to pay attention to).

Is there a way I can use Git to either (a) sort the list of branches by latest commit, or (b) get a list of branches together with each one's last-commit date, in some kind of machine-readable format?

Worst case, I could always run git branch to get a list of all the branches, parse its output, and then git log -n 1 branchname --format=format:%ci for each one, to get each branch's commit date. But this will run on a Windows box, where spinning up a new process is relatively expensive, so launching the Git executable once per branch could get slow if there are a lot of branches. Is there a way to do all this with a single command?

Johnie

https://mcmap.net/q/13082/-listing-each-branch-and-its-last-revision-39-s-date-in-git Has a better answer. – Stinkstone

@Spundun, you lost me there. How is a combination of multiple commands, including stuff piped through perl and sed, "better" than using a command that Git already has? – Johnie

Because with the answer here , I didn't get all the branches in the repo. In my particular case, the answer would give me one branch and the answer there gave me 20 or so branches(with the -r option). – Stinkstone

@Stinkstone regarding the answer with git for-each-ref from Jakub Narębski: you can get remote branches passing refs/remotes/ instead of refs/heads/ (or you can pass both, whitespace-separated); refs/tags/ for tags, or just refs/ for all three kinds. – Centigram

Starting git 2.7 (Q4 2015), no more for-each-ref! You will use directly git branch --sort=-committerdate: see my answer below – Selfdriven

@VonC, do you mean for-each-ref will no longer be available, or just that it won't be needed here because there'll be a better way? – Johnie

@JoeWhite it will still be available, but part of its semantic will be directly accessible from git branch itself. – Selfdriven

I have completed my answer below: when the comparison doesn't tiebreak branches (for instance same timestamp because committed together), it fallback on alphabetical comparison. – Selfdriven

Is there a way to achieve this without cloning, ie.in the style of git ls-remote ? – Wheeling

From a practical point of view, given a github repository with many branches, I want to be able to identify asap which branches are active versus stale. This is only possible via the web interface. For example: https://github.com/<org here>/<repo name here>/branches/active. This means, no command line can make this active vs stale determination. – Quirt

Answer 1

Use the --sort=-committerdate option of git for-each-ref;

Also available since Git 2.7.0 for git branch:

Basic Usage:

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/

# Or using git branch (since version 2.7.0)
git branch --sort=-committerdate  # DESC
git branch --sort=committerdate  # ASC

Result:

Advanced Usage:

git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))'

Result:

Pro Usage (Unix):

You can put the following snippet in your ~/.gitconfig. The recentb alias accepts two arguments:

• refbranch: which branch the ahead and behind columns are calculated against. Default master
• count: how many recent branches to show. Default 20

[alias]
    # ATTENTION: All aliases prefixed with ! run in /bin/sh make sure you use sh syntax, not bash/zsh or whatever
    recentb = "!r() { refbranch=$1 count=$2; git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format='%(refname:short)|%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)' --color=always --count=${count:-20} | while read line; do branch=$(echo \"$line\" | awk 'BEGIN { FS = \"|\" }; { print $1 }' | tr -d '*'); ahead=$(git rev-list --count \"${refbranch:-origin/master}..${branch}\"); behind=$(git rev-list --count \"${branch}..${refbranch:-origin/master}\"); colorline=$(echo \"$line\" | sed 's/^[^|]*|//'); echo \"$ahead|$behind|$colorline\" | awk -F'|' -vOFS='|' '{$5=substr($5,1,70)}1' ; done | ( echo \"ahead|behind|branch|lastcommit|message|author\n\" && cat) | column -ts'|';}; r"

Result:

Dateless

Perfect! I can even restrict the output to just the ref names by appending --format=%(refname). – Johnie

This is better for me: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(refname) %(committerdate) %(authorname)' | sed 's/refs\/heads\///g' – Dna

@ilius: why not use :shortname? – Curie

@ilius: As @BeauSmith wrote: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format='%(refname:short)' refs/heads/. git-for-each-ref(1) manpage says: For a non-ambiguous short name of the ref append :short. – Curie

I used refname:short but still a bunch of "heads/" are there while the branch name itself is not ambiguous. – Dna

Docs are here: kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-for-each-ref.html – Whirlpool

@Spundun: while git-for-each-ref doesn't support all the bells and whistles that --pretty option in git show does, it does allow for advanced formatting of output via --format option. – Curie

pretty option is nice. But I liked the other answer mainly because this answer gave me only one branch while the other answer (with the -r option) gave me more than 20 branches. – Stinkstone

@Spundun: The original question was about list of branches (not a single branch), sorted. You can always pipe to head -1 – Curie

I also wanted a list of branches, but I only got one branch. The other answer gave me the whole list of branches. – Stinkstone

To get the commit message as well: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(refname) %(committerdate) %(authorname) - %(contents:subject)' | sed 's/refs\/heads\///g' Thanks! – Ambrose

@Poni: Nice. Though you can use %(refname:short) instead of piping output to sed (and hoping that commit message does not contain refs/heads/). – Curie

It's easier to read the output if you format it with the date first, as the dates are (to 1 character) the same length. – Monarch

To colorize the output: git for-each-ref --sort='-committerdate' --format='%(color:green)%(committerdate:iso) %(color:blue)%(authorname)%09%(color:reset)%(refname:short)' – Hoeve

This is a colorized version including hashes, messages, ordered ascending based on commit date, with the relative age of the last commit on each branch. I stole all of the ideas from you guys above. It's in my .gitconfig in the [alias] section and I love it. br = for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' – Zuber

And this version will only show the last 10 entries, use --count to show more, also works as an alias if you want to: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --count=10 refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' – Killam

As of Git 2.7(ish), you can also add align fields to clean up the formatted output. – Nave

Also since Git 1.7.0 you don't need to resort to plumbing (low-level) commands; thanks to GSoC project of branch / tag / for-each-ref code unification, you can simply use git branch --sort=-committerdate. – Curie

git branch --sort=-committerdate is not working in git version 2.1.4 @jakub-narębski – Graph

@QiLuo: I'm sorry, a typo: it was meant to be Git 2.7.0 is the version from which you can use git branch --sort=-committerdate. See also e.g. git-blame.blogspot.com/2016/05/… – Curie

Advanced Usage is a bit inconsistent with Basic Usage in sort order as it uses --sort=committerdate. Is it worth to use --sort=-committerdate (with dash) as well? – Aphasia

Love the format. I changed it to accommodate my 'I don't want to have old branches lying around'-obsession and modified the format to my need: git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' – Beebread

Using the idea to pipe the output through column from @dimid below my version of the command is: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset)|%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset)|%(contents:subject)|%(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' | column -ts'|' – Justinn

@MikePercy ...what uh...what else you got in your .gitconfig[alias]? :) – Monologue

@KevinFriedheim mostly just this and git log colorization stuff, but if you really want to know: github.com/mpercy/Dotfiles/blob/master/gitconfig :) – Zuber

Jakub's "Advanced Usage" example is the ascending type, for those who'd prefer the "Descending Usage", don't overlook the subtle difference he points out in his simple examples (the "-" sign). Here it is: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))'.Makes more sense as a super minor edit to show both "Advanced Usage" versions as an edit to the answer, but my minor edit was rejected. – Hypnotize

Seems also git branch takes a format parameter (version 2.17.1), so the coloring works for it to. branch have the perk that it accepts -r or -a to show remote/all branches. I use alias work = branch --sort=-committerdate --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' – Vauntcourier

Windows: Replace single quotes with double quotes – Islas

man git branch shows the sort option: --sort=<key>. How can I see a list of all "keys" one can use here to sort by? – Hypnotize

For the current branch to stand out, consider using %(if)%(HEAD)%(then)* %(color:red bold)%(refname:short)%(color:reset)%(else) %(refname:short)%(end) , which will color and bold it. – Wavelength

Since the git branch version doesn't take a count=n parameter, I added --color=always and piped it through head -n 5. – Mra

including remote branches git branch -a --sort=-committerdate – Acadian

well, committerdate is not what I am looking for. I want to sort my branches by createdAt like sort the branches by the time they have in their createAt coloum not committedDate. Any idea? – Paleface

@MKJ as far as I know it is not possible to sort branches using git for-each-ref by their creation data. Moreover, the idea of "creation date of a branch" in Git is quite murky, and not easy to find. You could find it for the local branches in the reflog, as its first entry... unless those entries did expire. – Curie

On OS X Montery (at least) the column alignment is off for the header, inserting some backspaces (\b) into it helps fix things: echo \"ahead|behind||branch|\b\b\b\blastcommit|\b\b\b\b\b\bmessage|\b\b\b\bauthor\\n\" – Antilogarithm

Now include whether the branch was merged into the default branch or not. – Bax

my contribution following @MichaelPercy, includes alignment & git b for recents vs git ball for all branches: b = "! git ball | grep -v week | grep -v month" then ball = for-each-ref --color --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(align:width=33,position=left)(committed %(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))%(end) %(align:width=33,position=left)(authored %(color:green)%(creatordate:relative)%(color:reset))%(end) %(color:red)%(o bjectname:short)%(color:reset) \t %(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname)' – Whitt

The column header alignment does not fit, there is a blind column between behind and branch. ( echo \"ahead|behind||branch|lastcommit|message|author\\n\" && cat) With: ( echo \"ahead|behind|branch|lastcommit|message|author\\n\" && cat) it works like a charm. – Calculable

Answer 2

Here is a simple command that lists all branches with latest commits:

git branch -v

To order by most recent commit, use

git branch -v --sort=committerdate

Source: http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Branching-Branch-Management

Brigitte

git branch -av if you want to see non-local branches too. – Lounge

Is it easy to get git branch -v to include the date of each commit listed? – Eagre

This is awesome. I like git branch -va --sort=-committerdate to show non-local branches, with the most recently changed branches at the top. – Venous

git branch -v --format='%(committerdate:short) %(refname:short)' will include the date. – Medlock

For those coming from search, yes, committerdate will catch the last time that you amended or rebased. (The other possibility is authordate, which amend or rebase will not change by default.) – Viol

Not sure why it's not mentioned but to get the branch with the most recent commit at the top of the output you have to use git branch -v --sort=committerdate | tac on Linux so that the output is reversed. Otherwise you have the branch with the oldest commit at the top. – Muckrake

Sort order can be changed with a - prefix: git branch -v --sort=-committerdate git-scm.com/docs/git-branch#Documentation/… – Reactant

Answer 3

List of Git branch names, ordered by most recent commit…

Expanding on Jakub’s answer and Joe’s tip, the following will strip out the "refs/heads/" so the output only displays the branch names:

---

Command:

git for-each-ref --count=30 --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(refname:short)'

---

Result:

Terracotta

Is there any way to do this for the REMOTE repository? – Empoverish

aah - @Centigram already explained: you can get remote branches passing refs/remotes/ instead of refs/heads/. Perfect!! – Empoverish

I like this one, if you're trying to alias it, which I did, to git rb remember to surround the command in quotes: git config --global alias.rb "for-each-ref --count=20 --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format=\'%(refname:short)\'" – Bridgettebridgewater

And now you can do this with git branch, so getting local, remote or all branches works like on git-branch (i.e. -r, -a). git branch -r --sort=committerdate --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' – Saraisaraiya

To align the results, you can use tab (%09) instead of ` - ; then pipe it into columns. So, git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/ --format='%(HEAD)%09%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset)%09%(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset)%09%(contents:subject)%09%(authorname)%09(%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' | column -t -s $'\t'` – Greer

@AllanBowe the following will output the top 5 active branches in a repo: git branch -va --sort=committerdate | tail -5. Perhaps that's an alternative to what you were asking and discovered. – Yi

Answer 4

Here's the optimal code, which combines the other two answers:

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(committerdate:short) %(authorname) %(refname:short)'

Broussard

Even a little mor optimized to get a tabular output: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(committerdate:short) %(authorname) %(refname:short)' – Gossett

for some reason i had to use double-quotes on windows, but otherwise these work just fine :) – Neuroma

@Gossett That code looks exactly like the one from nikolay, what did you change to make it tabular? – Hypoxia

@Hypoxia and others that may wonder about the same thing. nikolay changed his answer using schoetbis suggestion. By moving date first which is always the same length the result seems more tabular. – Jakejakes

Answer 5

I use the following alias:

recent = "!r() { count=$1; git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format='%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)' --color=always --count=${count:=10} | column -ts'|';}; r"

which produces:

We can also give a custom count, e.g.,

git recent 20 (the default is 10).

Postmortem

Great alias! I would suggest column -ts'|' and pipe characters if the comma char can occur inside relative timestamps in your locale. – Teletypesetter

great alias, thank you very much. can you improve it to show the current branch with an other colour or with * at the beginning? – Hautesalpes

In case the sed \"s/m${cur}|/m* ${cur}|/\" gives you an error about an unknown option to s, the solution is to replace \" by a simple quote. – Marengo

@Marengo but then I won't be able to expand cur – Postmortem

At least in the latest version of git you can just add '%(HEAD) ...' at the start of the format string to get the same effect without piping throught the sed command – Justinn

I could not git this to work as a git alias. I had to use [alias] recent = !git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format='%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)'|column -ts'|' – Titanate

Any idea how to use git branch --color[=<when>] to display branches in multiple colors – Tumor

these anonymous function are not supported in fish :(. nice work, Id pipe it through some command to truncate the commit message. some are longer than they should be, on occasion. – Jointed

I had to add --color=always to get color. git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format='%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)' --color=always|column -ts'|'} – Fachini

Could you include example shell commands necessary to set up and test this? On my git (2.17.1), I basically get r: not found. – Clute

@Clute Nothing special really, just add this alias to your git config file and call git recent from the shell. – Postmortem

Thanks, that's pretty much what I tried though. You can see my ~/.gitconfig file at pastebin.com/JS2VJDwR . I basically get: r(){git for-each-ref ... }; r: r: not found. Does it work for you? – Clute

Note there should be a space after {, also it might be an issue wit the shell, e.g. stackoverflow.com/questions/46435606/… – Postmortem

What does the !r() do? – Wycliffite

@BrianLow Defines a function. See here jondavidjohn.com/git-aliases-parameters – Postmortem

@mwfearnley: For me, putting a semicolon inside the braces helped !r(){git for-each-ref ... ;}; r – Rota

I also need to add a semi-colon after -ts'|' i.e. "!r(){ git ... -ts'|'; }; r" – Nertie

Removing the r function would also work: !git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format='%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)' --color=always | column -ts'|' – Unfriendly

Please review Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question? (e.g., "Images should only be used to illustrate problems that can't be made clear in any other way, such as to provide screenshots of a user interface.") and take the appropriate action (it covers answers and screen output as well). – Ambition

Answer 6

I was able to reference the previous examples to create something that works best for me.

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format='%(authordate:short) %(color:red)%(objectname:short) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))'

As suggested in the comments below you can also include remote branches and the author's name.

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads refs/remotes --format='%(authordate:short) %(color:red)%(objectname:short) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset)) %(authorname)'

Here are both commands as shell aliases that you can easily add to your shell profile.

# show a list of local git branches sorted by the commit date
alias git.branches='git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format="%(authordate:short) %(color:red)%(objectname:short) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))"'

# show a list of local and remote git branches sorted by the commit date
alias git.branches.remote='git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads refs/remotes --format="%(authordate:short) %(color:red)%(objectname:short) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset)) %(authorname)"'

Crinkle

That looks nice, more colorful than using directly git branch as I suggested in https://mcmap.net/q/13394/-how-can-i-get-a-list-of-git-branches-ordered-by-most-recent-commit. +1 – Selfdriven

Thanks, @Selfdriven glad you like it! – Crinkle

Ditto - this one worked out-of-box, unlike a number of others I just tried. Thanks. – Strega

This one is clean and neat. Sometime I'd add remote and authorname as this: git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ refs/remotes --format='%(authordate:short) %(authorname) %(color:red)%(objectname:short) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' – Viewer

Like this one! Clean and concise, thanks. :) – Comprehend

Please review Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question? (e.g., "Images should only be used to illustrate problems that can't be made clear in any other way, such as to provide screenshots of a user interface.") and take the appropriate action (it covers answers and screen output as well). – Ambition

Answer 7

git 2.7 (Q4 2015) will introduce branch sorting using directly git branch:
See commit aa3bc55, commit aedcb7d, commit 1511b22, commit f65f139, ... (23 Sep 2015), commit aedcb7d, commit 1511b22, commit ca41799 (24 Sep 2015), and commit f65f139, ... (23 Sep 2015) by Karthik Nayak (KarthikNayak).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 7f11b48, 15 Oct 2015)}

In particular, commit aedcb7d:

branch.c: use 'ref-filter' APIs

Make 'branch.c' use 'ref-filter' APIs for iterating through refs sorting. This removes most of the code used in 'branch.c' replacing it with calls to the 'ref-filter' library.

It adds the option --sort=<key>:

Sort based on the key given.
Prefix - to sort in descending order of the value.

You may use the --sort=<key> option multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary key.

The keys supported are the same as those in git for-each-ref.
Sort order defaults to sorting based on the full refname (including refs/... prefix). This lists detached HEAD (if present) first, then local branches and finally remote-tracking branches.

Here:

git branch --sort=-committerdate 

Or (see below with Git 2.19)

# if you are sure to /always/ want to see branches ordered by commits:
git config --global branch.sort -committerdate
git branch

---

See also commit 9e46833 (30 Oct 2015) by Karthik Nayak (KarthikNayak).
Helped-by: Junio C Hamano (gitster).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 415095f, 03 Nov 2015)}

When sorting as per numerical values (e.g. --sort=objectsize) there is no fallback comparison when both refs hold the same value. This can cause unexpected results (i.e. the order of listing refs with equal values cannot be pre-determined) as pointed out by Johannes Sixt ($gmane/280117).

Hence, fallback to alphabetical comparison based on the refname whenever the other criterion is equal.

$ git branch --sort=objectsize

*  (HEAD detached from fromtag)
    branch-two
    branch-one
    master

---

With Git 2.19, the sort order can be set by default.
git branch supports a config branch.sort, like git tag, which already had a config tag.sort.
See commit 560ae1c (16 Aug 2018) by Samuel Maftoul (``).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit d89db6f, 27 Aug 2018)}

branch.sort:

This variable controls the sort ordering of branches when displayed by git-branch.
Without the "--sort=<value>" option provided, the value of this variable will be used as the default.

---

To list remote branches, use git branch -r --sort=objectsize. The -r flag causes it to list remote branches instead of local branches.

---

With Git 2.27 (Q2 2020), "git branch" and other "for-each-ref" variants accepted multiple --sort=<key> options in the increasing order of precedence, but it had a few breakages around "--ignore-case" handling, and tie-breaking with the refname, which have been fixed.

See commit 7c5045f, commit 76f9e56 (03 May 2020) by Jeff King (peff).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 6de1630, 08 May 2020)}

ref-filter: apply fallback refname sort only after all user sorts

^{Signed-off-by: Jeff King}

Commit 9e468334b4 ("ref-filter: fallback on alphabetical comparison", 2015-10-30, Git v2.7.0-rc0 -- merge listed in batch #10) taught ref-filter's sort to fallback to comparing refnames.
But it did it at the wrong level, overriding the comparison result for a single "--sort" key from the user, rather than after all sort keys have been exhausted.

This worked correctly for a single "--sort" option, but not for multiple ones.
We'd break any ties in the first key with the refname and never evaluate the second key at all.

To make matters even more interesting, we only applied this fallback sometimes!
For a field like "taggeremail" which requires a string comparison, we'd truly return the result of strcmp(), even if it was 0.
But for numerical "value" fields like "taggerdate", we did apply the fallback. And that's why our multiple-sort test missed this: it uses taggeremail as the main comparison.

So let's start by adding a much more rigorous test. We'll have a set of commits expressing every combination of two tagger emails, dates, and refnames. Then we can confirm that our sort is applied with the correct precedence, and we'll be hitting both the string and value comparators.

That does show the bug, and the fix is simple: moving the fallback to the outer compare_refs() function, after all ref_sorting keys have been exhausted.

Note that in the outer function we don't have an "ignore_case" flag, as it's part of each individual ref_sorting element. It's debatable what such a fallback should do, since we didn't use the user's keys to match.
But until now we have been trying to respect that flag, so the least-invasive thing is to try to continue to do so.
Since all callers in the current code either set the flag for all keys or for none, we can just pull the flag from the first key. In a hypothetical world where the user really can flip the case-insensitivity of keys separately, we may want to extend the code to distinguish that case from a blanket "--ignore-case".

---

The implementation of "git branch --sort"^(man) wrt the detached HEAD display has always been hacky, which has been cleaned up with Git 2.31 (Q1 2021).

See commit 4045f65, commit 2708ce6, commit 7c269a7, commit d094748, commit 75c50e5 (07 Jan 2021), and commit 08bf6a8, commit ffdd02a (06 Jan 2021) by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason (avar).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 9e409d7, 25 Jan 2021)}

branch: show "HEAD detached" first under reverse sort

^{Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason}

Change the output of the likes of "git branch -l --sort=-objectsize"^(man) to show the "(HEAD detached at <hash>)" message at the start of the output.
Before the compare_detached_head() function added in a preceding commit we'd emit this output as an emergent effect.

It doesn't make any sense to consider the objectsize, type or other non-attribute of the "(HEAD detached at <hash>)" message for the purposes of sorting.
Let's always emit it at the top instead.
The only reason it was sorted in the first place is because we're injecting it into the ref-filter machinery so builtin/branch.c doesn't need to do its own "am I detached?" detection.

---

With Git 2.35 (Q1 2022), things like "git -c branch.sort=bogus branch new HEAD"^(man), i.e.
the operation modes of the "git branch"^(man) command that do not need the sort key information, no longer errors out by seeing a bogus sort key.

See commit 98e7ab6, commit 1a89796 (20 Oct 2021) by Junio C Hamano (gitster).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 5126145, 29 Nov 2021)}

for-each-ref: delay parsing of --sort=<atom> options

The for-each-ref family of commands invoke parsers immediately when it sees each --sort=<atom> option, and die before even seeing the other options on the command line when the <atom> is unrecognised.

Instead, accumulate them in a string list, and have them parsed into a ref_sorting structure after the command line parsing is done.
As a consequence, "git branch --sort=bogus -h"^(man) used to fail to give the brief help, which arguably may have been a feature, now does so, which is more consistent with how other options work.

Selfdriven

To list remotes with this option, add -r – Skipp

Answer 8

I also needed colors, tags and remote references without any duplicates:

for ref in $(git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format="%(refname)" refs/heads/ refs/remotes ); do git log -n1 $ref --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%cr%Creset %C(yellow)%d%Creset %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n" | cat ; done | awk '! a[$0]++'

Because quoting can be hard, here is the alias for Bash:

alias glist='for ref in $(git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format="%(refname)" refs/heads/ refs/remotes ); do git log -n1 $ref --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%cr%Creset %C(yellow)%d%Creset %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n" | cat ; done | awk '"'! a["'$0'"]++'"

Douglas

$ <your command here> awk: syntax error near line 1 awk: bailing out near line 1 – Haematogenesis

@GotNoSugarBaby You are using single quotes like the example right? which shell are you using? Bash gives that character a special meaning otherwise. – Douglas

hey, I ran this on /bin/bash (GNU bash, version 4.0.28(1)-release (i386-pc-solaris2.11)) with a straight copy and paste of your example — but since then I've run it on /bin/bash (GNU bash, version 3.2.48(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin12)) and it works, so I'll remove the down-vote. Thanks a lot estani. – Haematogenesis

@GotNoSugarBaby I use 4.2.25(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) nad tried on 3.x and worked. I'm not sure what issue it was... but it might have bennn a git version related issue, instead of a bash one. In any case, I'm glad it works for you! – Douglas

How would I limit this command to say the 20 most recent branches? On the repo I run it on, it gives me tons of pages full of branches over the past two years (I know we probably shouldn't have so many old, un-merged branches lying around in the repo) – Bridgettebridgewater

@MichaelDiscenza just pipe everything to head. that would be to add | head -n20 at the end. If you are using the alias, be sure this goes within the quotes. – Douglas

Best answer for remote branches, sadly the colors are not working for me – Adlei

Best answer since this supports remote branches. – Filar

Answer 9

As of Git 2.19 you can simply:

git branch --sort=-committerdate

You can also:

git config branch.sort -committerdate

So whenever you list branches in the current repository, it will be listed sorted by committerdate.

If whenever you list branches, you want them sorted by comitterdate:

git config --global branch.sort -committerdate

Disclaimer: I'm the author of this feature in Git, and I implemented it when I saw this question.

Dingess

Most up-to-date answer, far easier than using complex scripts or aliases 👌 – Farther

Use with caution! Beware everyone, this is not a command to list the branches. It's a command to change the configuration of Git and will have permanent global repercussions. – Immolation

@Immolation you are right, I edited the answer so it's clearer – Dingess

thank you for adding this neat feature, @smaftoul, i use it a lot. ; ) – Citrate

@Citrate you're welcome, I also use it a lot ;) – Dingess

Don't forget to also use git config --global column.ui auto. Disclaimer: I'm NOT the author of this feature, I just know it all :P – Payoff

Recently seen a lot people talking about this config, probably following Scott Chacon's presentation at fosdem and this blog article blog.gitbutler.com/git-tips-2-new-stuff-in-git/… – Dingess

Answer 10

Another variation:

git branch -r --sort=-committerdate --format='%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)' --color=always | column -ts'|'

It is worth noting that even though it's looking at changes in remote branches, it's worth synchronising with origin before running the command (you can use Git fetch), as I found it can return out of date information if your local Git folder hasn't been updated in a while.

Also, this is a version that works in Windows cmd and PowerShell:

git branch -r --sort=-committerdate --format="%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)" --color=always

Exist

Thanks for the answer for Windows Cmd/Powershell. I can confirm it also works in Cmder. – Ailis

Drop the -r ifi you want your local branches, and not just what's been pushed/synced to your remote(s). – Mortal

Thank you, you checked remote branches too, that is I want! – Waziristan

Answer 11

Getting just the top five branch names sorted based on committer date:

git branch --sort=-committerdate | head -5

Marga

Answer 12

The other answers don't seem to allow passing -vv to get verbose output.

So here's a one-liner that sorts git branch -vv by commit date, preserving color etc:

git branch -vv --color=always | while read; do echo -e $(git log -1 --format=%ct $(echo "_$REPLY" | awk '{print $2}' | perl -pe 's/\e\[?.*?[\@-~]//g') 2> /dev/null || git log -1 --format=%ct)"\t$REPLY"; done | sort -r | cut -f 2

If you additionally want to print the commit date, you can use this version instead:

git branch -vv --color=always | while read; do echo -e $(git log -1 --format=%ci $(echo "_$REPLY" | awk '{print $2}' | perl -pe 's/\e\[?.*?[\@-~]//g') 2> /dev/null || git log -1 --format=%ci)" $REPLY"; done | sort -r | cut -d ' ' -f -1,4-

Sample output:

2013-09-15   master                  da39a3e [origin/master: behind 7] Some patch
2013-09-11 * (detached from 3eba4b8) 3eba4b8 Some other patch
2013-09-09   my-feature              e5e6b4b [master: ahead 2, behind 25] WIP

It's probably more readable split into multiple lines:

git branch -vv --color=always | while read; do
    # The underscore is because the active branch is preceded by a '*', and
    # for awk I need the columns to line up. The perl call is to strip out
    # ansi colors; if you don't pass --color=always above you can skip this
    local branch=$(echo "_$REPLY" | awk '{print $2}' | perl -pe 's/\e\[?.*?[\@-~]//g')
    # git log fails when you pass a detached head as a branch name.
    # Hide the error and get the date of the current head.
    local branch_modified=$(git log -1 --format=%ci "$branch" 2> /dev/null || git log -1 --format=%ci)
    echo -e "$branch_modified $REPLY"
# cut strips the time and timezone columns, leaving only the date
done | sort -r | cut -d ' ' -f -1,4-

This should also work with other arguments to git branch, e.g. -vvr to list remote-tracking branches, or -vva to list both remote-tracking and local branches.

Everard

-vv can be useful indeed, thanks. However, this solution still spawns new processes for each branch, which the OP wanted to avoid. – Videogenic

Actually git branch doesn't specifically define the meaning of -vv, but only of -v, so -vv should have the same as -v. – Videogenic

This is the best. And adding -avv makes it take into account remote branches as well. Thanks for this! – Colatitude

@Videogenic My git branch manpage, section -v, -vv, --verbose contains the following: If given twice, print the name of the upstream branch, as well – Casi

@Perleone: I don't know how I got that information, but you are right, and I stand corrected. Thanks! – Videogenic

this was the only one that worked for me as I am on an old verion of git (at work), added the -r -vv to make it work remotely, this gave a slightly different dated response to -avv or -rvv – Vasquez

Answer 13

I find the following command helpful for my purposes.

git branch --sort=-committerdate | head -n 10

This will list the latest 10 branches. It is short and can be used without an alias as well.

Kip

git config --global alias.br "! git branch --sort=-committerdate | head -n 10" – Jedidiah

Answer 14

I like using a relative date and shortening the branch name like this:

git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate:iso8601' --format=' %(authordate:relative)%09%(refname:short)' refs/heads

Which gives you output:

21 minutes ago  nathan/a_recent_branch
6 hours ago     master
27 hours ago    nathan/some_other_branch
29 hours ago    branch_c
6 days ago      branch_d

I recommend making a Bash file for adding all your favorite aliases and then sharing the script out to your team. Here's an example to add just this one:

#!/bin/sh

git config --global alias.branches "!echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------' && git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate:iso8601' --format=' %(authordate:relative)%09%(refname:short)' refs/heads && echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------'"

Then you can just do this to get a nicely formatted and sorted local branch list:

git branches

Update: Do this if you want coloring:

#!/bin/sh
#
(echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------‌​' && git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate:iso8601' --format=' %(authordate:relative)%09%(refname:short)' refs/heads && echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------‌​') | grep --color -E "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)$|$"

Iceskate

This gives me fatal: unknown field name: '-authordate:iso8601' – Histoplasmosis

Fancy colored output is fancy, but this is simple and just what I was looking for. Replace refs/heads with refs/remotes to have a look at remote branches. – Incertitude

The command itself is lovely, but the alias throws an error: expansion of alias 'branches' failed; 'echo' is not a git command – Minimalist

Works for me. What happens if you just copy paste this into terminal? (echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------‌​' && git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate:iso8601' --format=' %(authordate:relative)%09%(refname:short)' refs/heads && echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------‌​') | grep --color -E "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)$|$" – Iceskate

Answer 15

Adds some color (since pretty-format isn't available)

[alias]
    branchdate = for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format="%(authordate:short)%09%(objectname:short)%09%1B[0;33m%(refname:short)%1B[m%09"

Michalemichalski

Answer 16

I came up with the following command (for Git 2.13 and later):

git branch -r --sort=creatordate \
    --format "%(creatordate:relative);%(committername);%(refname:lstrip=-1)" \
    | grep -v ";HEAD$" \
    | column -s ";" -t

If you don’t have column you can replace the last line with

    | sed -e "s/;/\t/g"

The output looks like

6 years ago             Tom Preston-Werner  book
4 years, 4 months ago   Parker Moore        0.12.1-release
4 years ago             Matt Rogers         1.0-branch
3 years, 11 months ago  Matt Rogers         1.2_branch
3 years, 1 month ago    Parker Moore        v1-stable
12 months ago           Ben Balter          pages-as-documents
10 months ago           Jordon Bedwell      make-jekyll-parallel
6 months ago            Pat Hawks           to_integer
5 months ago            Parker Moore        3.4-stable-backport-5920
4 months ago            Parker Moore        yajl-ruby-2-4-patch
4 weeks ago             Parker Moore        3.4-stable
3 weeks ago             Parker Moore        rouge-1-and-2
19 hours ago            jekyllbot           master

I wrote a blog post about how the various pieces work.

Polk

Nice. +1. It does use the git branch --sort I mentioned in https://mcmap.net/q/13394/-how-can-i-get-a-list-of-git-branches-ordered-by-most-recent-commit. – Selfdriven

@DanNissenbaum Make sure you’re using Git 2.13 (released in May 2017) or later. – Polk

Answer 17

Git v2.19 introduces branch.sort configuration option (see branch.sort).

So git branch will sort by committer date (descending) by default with

# gitconfig
[branch]
    sort = -committerdate     # Descending

Script:

git config --global branch.sort -committerdate

So,

git branch

Output:

* dev
  master
  _

And

git branch -v

Output:

* dev    0afecf5 Merge branch 'oc' into dev
  master 652428a Merge branch 'dev'
  _      7159cf9 Merge branch 'bashrc' into dev

Microparasite

Answer 18

I had the same problem, so I wrote a Ruby gem called Twig. It lists branches in chronological order (newest first), and can also let you set a max age so that you don't list all branches (if you have a lot of them). For example:

$ twig

                              issue  status       todo            branch
                              -----  ------       ----            ------
2013-01-26 18:00:21 (7m ago)  486    In progress  Rebase          optimize-all-the-things
2013-01-26 16:49:21 (2h ago)  268    In progress  -               whitespace-all-the-things
2013-01-23 18:35:21 (3d ago)  159    Shipped      Test in prod  * refactor-all-the-things
2013-01-22 17:12:09 (4d ago)  -      -            -               development
2013-01-20 19:45:42 (6d ago)  -      -            -               master

It also lets you store custom properties for each branch, e.g., ticket id, status, todos, and filter the list of branches according to these properties. More info: http://rondevera.github.io/twig/

Osteoclast

That name might not help as I am pretty sure there are a few pieces of software out there with the same name. – Marengo

Answer 19

FYI, if you'd like to get a list of recently checked out branches (as opposed to recently committed) you can use Git's reflog:

$ git reflog | egrep -io "moving from ([^[:space:]]+)" | awk '{ print $3 }' | head -n5
master
stable
master
some-cool-feature
feature/improve-everything

See also: How can I get a list of Git branches that I've recently checked out?

Tessie

Answer 20

Here's a little script that I use to switch between recent branches:

#!/bin/bash
# sudo bash

re='^[0-9]+$'

if [[ "$1" =~ $re ]]; then
    lines="$1"
else
    lines=10
fi
branches="$(git recent | tail -n $lines | nl)"
branches_nf="$(git recent-nf | tail -n $lines | nl)"
echo "$branches"

# Prompt which server to connect to
max="$(echo "$branches" | wc -l)"
index=
while [[ ! ( "$index" =~ ^[0-9]+$ && "$index" -gt 0 && "$index" -le "$max" ) ]]; do
    echo -n "Checkout to: "
    read index
done

branch="$( echo "$branches_nf" | sed -n "${index}p" | awk '{ print $NF }' )"
git co $branch
clear

Using those two aliases:

recent = for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format=' %(color:blue) %(authorname) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset)'
recent-nf = for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format=' %(authorname) %(refname:short)'

Just call that in a Git repository, and it will show you the last N branches (10 by default) and a number aside each. Input the number of the branch, and it checks out:

Residuum

Please review Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question? (e.g., "Images should only be used to illustrate problems that can't be made clear in any other way, such as to provide screenshots of a user interface.") and take the appropriate action (it covers answers as well). – Ambition

Answer 21

Here is another script that does what all the other scripts do. In fact, it provides a function for your shell.

Its contribution is that it pulls some colours from your Git configuration (or uses defaults).

# Git Branch by Date
# Usage: gbd [ -r ]
gbd() {
    local reset_color=`tput sgr0`
    local subject_color=`tput setaf 4 ; tput bold`
    local author_color=`tput setaf 6`

    local target=refs/heads
    local branch_color=`git config --get-color color.branch.local white`

    if [ "$1" = -r ]
    then
        target=refs/remotes/origin
        branch_color=`git config --get-color color.branch.remote red`
    fi

    git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate $target --format="${branch_color}%(refname:short)${reset_color} ${subject_color}%(subject)${reset_color} ${author_color}- %(authorname) (%(committerdate:relative))${reset_color}"
}

Rotherham

Answer 22

Normally we consider the remote branches recently. So try this

git fetch
git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/remotes/origin

Chyack

Answer 23

This is based on saeedgnu's version, but with the current branch shown with a star and in color, and only showing anything that is not described as "months" or "years" ago:

current_branch="$(git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD)"
git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads \
  --format='%(refname:short)|%(committerdate:relative)' \
  | grep -v '\(year\|month\)s\? ago' \
  | while IFS='|' read branch date
    do
      start='  '
      end=''
      if [[ $branch = $current_branch ]]; then
        start='* \e[32m'
        end='\e[0m'
      fi
      printf "$start%-30s %s$end\\n" "$branch" "$date"
    done

Fatsoluble

Answer 24

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/

# Or using Git branch (since version 2.7.0)
git branch --sort=-committerdate  # Descending
git branch --sort=committerdate  # Ascending

Cheater

An explanation would be in order. E.g., what is the idea/gist? How does it contrast with the previous 30 answers? From the Help Center: "...always explain why the solution you're presenting is appropriate and how it works". Please respond by editing (changing) your answer, not here in comments (without "Edit:", "Update:", or similar - the answer should appear as if it was written today). – Ambition

Answer 25

My best result as a script:

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(refname:short)|%(committerdate:iso)|%(authorname)' |
    sed 's/refs\/heads\///g' |
    grep -v BACKUP  | 
    while IFS='|' read branch date author
    do 
        printf '%-15s %-30s %s\n' "$branch" "$date" "$author"
    done

Dna

What kind of script? Bash? – Ambition

Answer 26

The accepted command-line answer rocks, but if you want something prettier, like a GUI, and your origin === "github".

You can click "Branches" in the repository. Or hit the URL directly: https://github.com/ORGANIZATION_NAME/REPO_NAME/branches

Emissary

Answer 27

The simplest one to print along with the last commit date:

git branch --all  --format='%(committerdate:short) %(refname:short)'|sort

Zulemazullo

Answer 28

Here's the variation I was looking for:

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format='%(committerdate)%09%(refname:short)' refs/heads/ | tail -r

That tail -r reverses the list so the most-recent commiterdate is last.

Idiotic

You can also change --sort=-committerdate to --sort=committerdate to accomplish this. – Almaraz

Which tail has -r? – Various

Answer 29

I know there are a lot of answers already, but here are my two cents for a simple alias (I like to have my most recent branch at the bottom):

[alias]
        br = !git branch --sort=committerdate --color=always | tail -n15
[color "branch"]
        current = yellow
        local = cyan
        remote = red

This will give you a nice overview of your latest 15 branches, in color, with your current branch highlighted (and it has an asterisk).

Unwholesome

Answer 30

I didn't find exactly what I was looking so here is my version based on https://mcmap.net/q/13394/-how-can-i-get-a-list-of-git-branches-ordered-by-most-recent-commit, which:

• works under Windows (but you have to have awk installed - mine came with MinGW, can be installed with Git, Cygwin, ....)
• is not based on complex aliases to be usable as one-liner in command line / script
• is colorized
• uses recent git branch --sort=committerdate
• output is aligned to columns

So here it is:

git branch -a --sort=committerdate --format='%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)@SEP@%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)@SEP@%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)@SEP@%(color:blue)%(subject)' --color=always | awk -F "@SEP@" '{printf("%-100s %-30s %-20s %s \n", $1, $2, $3, $4)}'

When inside cmd script it has to be modified to handle %:

git branch -a --sort=committerdate --format="%%(HEAD)%%(color:yellow)%%(refname:short)@SEP@%%(color:bold green)%%(committerdate:relative)@SEP@%%(color:magenta)%%(authorname)%%(color:reset)@SEP@%%(color:blue)%%(subject)" --color=always | awk -F "@SEP@" '{printf("%%-100s %%-30s %%-20s %%s \n", $1, $2, $3, $4)}'

Screenshot for openapi-generator github repo

Notes, howto:

• use --sort=-committerdate to reverse the sort order
• numbers and hyphens in awk printf spec "%-100s %-30s %-20s %s \n" are columns length and aligning specifications so this is a place for customization
• @SEP@ is used as a unique separator string, which then awk uses to match data columns via -F "@SEP". Overkill but avoids accidental confusion when using some simple separator

Nitrosyl

Answer 31

I pipe the output from the accepted answer into dialog, to give me an interactive list:

#!/bin/bash

TMP_FILE=/tmp/selected-git-branch

eval `resize`
dialog --title "Recent Git Branches" --menu "Choose a branch" $LINES $COLUMNS $(( $LINES - 8 )) $(git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(refname:short) %(committerdate:short)') 2> $TMP_FILE

if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
    git checkout $(< $TMP_FILE)
fi

rm -f $TMP_FILE

clear

Save as (e.g.) ~/bin/git_recent_branches.sh and chmod +x it. Then git config --global alias.rb '!git_recent_branches.sh' to give me a new git rb command.

Wheezy

Answer 32

git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' this is that you need

Chape