[git] Git commit date

Other than parsing git log for the date string, is there a Git native way to report the date of a certain commit?

This question is related to git

The answer is


The show command may be what you want. Try

git show -s --format=%ci <commit>

Other formats for the date string are available as well. Check the manual page for details.


If you want to see only the date of a tag you'd do:

git show -s --format=%ci <mytagname>^{commit}

which gives: 2013-11-06 13:22:37 +0100

Or do:

git show -s --format=%ct <mytagname>^{commit}

which gives UNIX timestamp: 1383740557


If you like to have the timestamp without the timezone but local timezone do

git log -1 --format=%cd --date=local

Which gives this depending on your location

Mon Sep 28 12:07:37 2015

You can use the git show command.

To get the last commit date from git repository in a long(Unix epoch timestamp):

  • Command: git show -s --format=%ct
  • Result: 1605103148

Note: You can visit the git-show documentation to get a more detailed description of the options.


if you got troubles with windows cmd command and .bat just escape percents like that

git show -s --format=%%ct

The % character has a special meaning for command line parameters and FOR parameters. To treat a percent as a regular character, double it: %%

Syntax : Escape Characters, Delimiters and Quotes