[git] Output of git branch in tree like fashion

Right now, when I type "git branch"

it lists my branches in an arbitrary order.

What I would prefer would be if "git branch" listed my output in a tree like fasion, somethign like:

master
|-- foo
  |-- foo1
  |-- foo2
|-- bar
  |-- bar4

Where here, foo & bar were branched from master; foo1 & foo2 were branched from foo; bar4 was branched from bar.

Is this easy to accomplish?

[Command line utilities only. This needs to fit into my zsh/vim workflow.]

You can use a tool called gitk.

The following example shows commit parents as well:

git log --graph --all \
--format='%C(cyan dim) %p %Cred %h %C(white dim) %s %Cgreen(%cr)%C(cyan dim) <%an>%C(bold yellow)%d%Creset'

It's not quite what you asked for, but

git log --graph --simplify-by-decoration --pretty=format:'%d' --all

does a pretty good job. It shows tags and remote branches as well. This may not be desirable for everyone, but I find it useful. --simplifiy-by-decoration is the big trick here for limiting the refs shown.

I use a similar command to view my log. I've been able to completely replace my gitk usage with it:

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

I use it by including these aliases in my ~/.gitconfig file:

[alias]
    l = log --graph --oneline --decorate
    ll = log --graph --oneline --decorate --branches --tags
    lll = log --graph --oneline --decorate --all

Edit: Updated suggested log command/aliases to use simpler option flags.

For those who use Github, they have a branch network viewer that seems easier to read

Tested on Ubuntu:

sudo apt install git-extras
git-show-tree

This produces an effect similar to the 2 most upvoted answers here.

Source: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/man1/git-show-tree.1.html

Also, if you have arcanist installed (correction: Uber's fork of arcanist installed--see the bottom of this answer here for installation instructions), arc flow shows a beautiful dependency tree of upstream dependencies (ie: which were set previously via arc flow new_branch or manually via git branch --set-upstream-to=upstream_branch).

Bonus git tricks:

• How do I know if I'm running a nested shell? - see section here titled "Bonus: always show in your terminal your current git branch you are on too!"

Related:

1. What's the difference between `arc graft` and `arc patch`?