Visualizing branch topology in Git

Question

I m playing with Git in isolation on my own machine  and I find it difficult to maintain a mental model of all my branches and commits  I know I can do a git log to see the commit history from where I am  but is there a way to see the entire branch topography  something like these ASCII maps that seem to be used everywhere for explaining branches         -A---M---N---O---P                              I     B   C   D   E                               -------------   It just feels like someone coming along and trying to pick up my repository would have difficulty working out exactly what was going on  I guess I m influenced by AccuRev s stream browser

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Take a look at Gitkraken - a cross-platform GUI that shows topology in a lucid way   Here s a quick video tutorial on some advanced features  Note  registration is required

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I like  with git log  to do    git log --graph --oneline --branches    also with --all  for viewing remote branches as well   Works with recent Git releases  introduced since 1 6 3  Thu  7 May 2009          --pretty  lt style gt   option to the log family of commands can now be  spelled as  --format  lt style gt      In addition  --format  formatstring is a short-hand for --pretty tformat  formatstring     --oneline  is a synonym for  --pretty oneline --abbrev-commit        PS D  git tests finalRepo gt  git log --graph --oneline --branches --all   4919b68 a second bug10 fix   3469e13 a first bug10 fix   dbcc7aa a first legacy evolution     55aac85 another main evol       47e6ee1 a second bug10 fix       8183707 a first bug10 fix          e727105 a second evol for 2 0     473d44e a main evol      b68c1f5 first evol  for making 1 0   You can also limit the span of the log display  number of commits    PS D  git tests finalRepo gt  git log --graph --oneline --branches --all -5   4919b68 a second bug10 fix   3469e13 a first bug10 fix   dbcc7aa a first legacy evolution     55aac85 another main evol       47e6ee1 a second bug10 fix    show only the last 5 commits     What I do not like about the current selected solution is    git log --graph   It displayed way too much info  when I want only to look at a quick summary    PS D  git tests finalRepo gt  git log --graph   commit 4919b681db93df82ead7ba6190eca6a49a9d82e7   Author  VonC  lt vonc laposte net gt    Date    Sat Nov 14 13 42 20 2009  0100         a second bug10 fix     commit 3469e13f8d0fadeac5fcb6f388aca69497fd08a9   Author  VonC  lt vonc laposte net gt    Date    Sat Nov 14 13 41 50 2009  0100         a first bug10 fix     gitk is great  but forces me to leave the shell session for another window  whereas displaying the last n commits quickly is often enough

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I found this blog post which shows a concise way   git log --oneline --abbrev-commit --all --graph --decorate --color   I usually create an alias for the above command   alias gl  git log --oneline --abbrev-commit --all --graph --decorate --color    and simple just use gl   You can also add the alias to the git config   Open    gitconfig and add the following line to the  alias    alias          lg   log --oneline --abbrev-commit --all --graph --decorate --color   and use it like this  git lg

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I usually use  git log --graph --full-history --all --pretty format   h x09 d x20 s    With colors  if your shell is Bash    git log --graph --full-history --all --color           --pretty format   x1b 31m h x09 x1b 32m d x1b 0m x20 s    This will print text-based representation like this     040cc7c        HEAD  master  Manual is NOT built by default   a29ceb7       Removed offensive binary file that was compiled on my machine and was hence incompatible with other machines      901c7dd      cvc3  cvc3 now configured before building     d9e8b5e     More sane Yices SMT solver caller       5b98a10    nullvars  All uninitialized variables get zero inits          1cad874     CFLAGS for cvc3 to work successfully       1579581   Merge branch  llvm-inv  into cvc3            a9a246b   nostaticalias option       73b91cc   Comment about aliases        001b20a   Prints number of iteration and node               39d2638     Included header files to cvc3 sources     266023b     Added cvc3 to blast infrastructure      ac9eb10     Initial sources of cvc3-1 5      d642f88       Option -aliasstat  by default stats are suppressed    You could just use git log --format oneline  but it will tie commit messages to numbers  which looks less pretty IMHO    To make a shortcut for this command  you may want to edit your    gitconfig file    alias    gr   log --graph --full-history --all --color --pretty tformat   x1b 31m h x09 x1b 32m d x1b 0m x20 s x20 x1b 33m  an  x1b 0m      However  as Sodel the Vociferous notes in the comments  such long formatting command is hard to memorize  Usually  it s not a problem as you may put it into the    gitconfig file   However  if you sometimes have to log in to a remote machine where you can t modify the config file  you could use a more simple but faster to type version   git log --graph --oneline

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To any of these recipes  based on git log or gitk   you can add --simplify-by-decoration to collapse the uninteresting linear parts of the history   This makes much more of the topology visible at once   I can now understand large histories that would be incomprehensible without this option   I felt the need to post this because it doesn t seem to be as well-known as it should be   It doesn t appear in most of the Stack Overflow questions about visualizing history  and it took me quite a bit of searching to find--even after I knew I wanted it   I finally found it in this Debian bug report   The first mention on Stack Overflow seems to be this answer by Antoine Pelisse

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My personal favorite alias  via  gitconfig  is   graph   log --graph --color --all --pretty format   C yellow  H C green  d C reset  n x20 cd n x20 cn x20  ce  n x20 s n

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Giggle draws really nice graphs

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For Mac users  checkout  no pun intended  the free  open source tool GitUp  http   gitup co   I like the way the graphs are displayed  it s clearer than some of the other tools I ve seen   The project is here  https   github com git-up GitUp

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I found  git-big-picture  quite useful  https   github com esc git-big-picture  It creates pretty 2D graphs using dot graphviz instead of the rather linear   one-dimensional  views gitk and friends produce  With the -i option it shows the branch points and merge commits but leaves out everything in-between

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I use the following aliases     alias      lol   log --graph --decorate --pretty oneline --abbrev-commit     lola   log --graph --decorate --pretty oneline --abbrev-commit --all   It has more info in the color scheme than aliases that I saw above   It also seems to be quite common  so you might have a chance of it existing in other s environment or being able to mention it in conversation without having to explain it   With screenshots and  a full description here  http   blog kfish org 2010 04 git-lola html

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On Windows there is a very useful tool you can use    git extensions  It s a gui tool and makes git operations very easy   Also it s open sourced    http   gitextensions github io

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Gitg is a great tool for Linux  similar to Gitx for OS X  Just run  gitg  on the command line from somewhere inside your repository s tree structure  same with gitx

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Have a look at BranchMaster   I wrote it to visualize complex branch structure  by collapsing all commits between them to a single line  The numbers indicates the number of commits

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Check out SmartGit  It very much reminds me of the TortoiseHg branch visualization and it s free for non-commercial use

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Tortoise Git has a tool called  Revision Graph   If you re on Windows it s as easy as right click on your repo --  Tortoise Git --  Revision Graph

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The most rated answers showing git log commands as favorite solutions   If you need a tablelike  say column like output  you can use your awesome git log commands with slight modifications and some limitations with the  gitconfig alias tably snippet below   Modifications    you have to use   gt  lt   lt N gt   ltrunc mtrunc trunc   before every commit placeholder add a unique delimiter as column seperator add --color option for colored output   Limitations    you can place the git graph at every column as long as you do not use non-empty newlines  n    the last commit placeholder of any newline can be used without   gt  lt   lt N gt   trunc   if extra characters are needed for decoration like  committer    lt  and  gt   in      C dim white  committer   cn   lt  ce gt   C reset      to get a tablelike output they must be written directly before and after the commit placeholder      C dim white   lt  25 trunc  committer   cn  lt  25 trunc   lt  ce gt   C reset     if the --format format  option is not the last one close it with  C reset  as mostly done compared to normal git log output this one is slow but nice   Example taken from this site   thompson1       log --all --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format format   C bold blue  h C reset  -  C bold green   ar  C reset   C white  s C reset   C dim white -  an C reset  C auto  d C reset     will be with   as delimiter and without added characters  thompson1-new   log --all --graph --color --abbrev-commit --decorate --format format    C bold blue   lt  7 trunc  h C reset   C bold green   lt  21 trunc  ar C reset   C white   lt  40 trunc  s C reset   C dim white   lt  25 trunc  an C reset   C auto  d C reset     which compares like       or with moving graph to column 5    To achieve this add the following to your  gitconfig and call your log alias with  git tably YourLogAlias   color  decorate       HEAD   bold blink italic 196     branch   214     tag   bold 222   alias         delimiter used as column seperator     delim           example thompson1     thompson1       log --all --graph         --abbrev-commit --decorate --format format   C bold blue  h C reset  -  C bold green   ar  C reset   C white  s C reset   C dim white -  an C reset  C auto  d C reset         modified thompson1 example     thompson1-new   log --all --graph --color --abbrev-commit --decorate --format format    C bold blue   lt  7 trunc  h C reset   C bold green   lt  21 trunc  ar C reset   C white   lt  40 trunc  s C reset   C dim white   lt  25 trunc  an C reset   C auto  d C reset         set a column for the graph     thompson1-new-col   1  tably        bash -c                                                                                                                                 declare -A col length                                                                                                                  delim   git config alias delim                                                                                                         git log cmd   git config alias  1                                                                                                      git tre col   2 -  git config alias  1-col                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    i 0                                                                                                                                    n 0                                                                                                                                    while IFS  read -r line  do                                                                                                                n                                                                                                                                    while read -d   delim   -r col info do                                                                                                     i                                                                                                                                       -z    col info       amp  amp  col length    n  i      col length     last  i  -1   i      amp  amp    i--    amp  amp  continue                                i -gt   i max -0      amp  amp  i max  i                                                                                                   col length    n  i      grep -Eo       0-9    lm  trunc       lt  lt  lt     col info     grep -Eo    0-9       head -n 1                          -n     col length    n  i           amp  amp  last  i   n                                                                                   chars extra   grep -Eo     trunc         lt  lt  lt     col info                                                                                chars extra   chars extra trunc                                                                                                        chars begin   chars extra                                                                                                              chars extra   chars extra                                                                                                              case    ad aD ae aE ai aI al aL an aN ar as at b B cd cD ce cE ci cI cl cL cn cN cr                                                            cs ct d D e f G  gd gD ge gE GF GG GK gn gN GP gs GS GT h H N p P s S t T    in                                                       chars extra 0 2                                                                                                                    chars extra   chars extra 2                                                                                                            chars after   chars extra                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         chars extra 0 1                                                                                                                    chars extra   chars extra 1                                                                                                            chars after   chars extra                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            echo   No Placeholder found  Probably no tablelike output                                                                              continue                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   esac                                                                                                                                   if    -n    chars begin chars after      then                                                                                            len extra   echo    chars begin chars after     wc -m                                                                                  col length   n  i        col length   n  i     len extra-1                                                                           fi                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          done  lt  lt  lt      line   format   delim                                                                                                     i 1                                                                                                                                  done  lt  lt  lt      echo -e     git log cmd     n     n                                                                                                                                                                                                                              while IFS  read -r graph do                                                                                                              chars count   sed -nl1000   l    lt  lt  lt     graph     grep -Eo                                          wc -l                                    chars count -0  -gt   col length  1 1   -0      amp  amp  col length  1 1    chars count                                                done  lt   lt     -n     grep -F graph  lt  lt  lt     git log cmd          amp  amp  git log --all --graph --pretty format        amp  amp  echo                                                                                                                                                            l 0                                                                                                                                    while IFS  read -r line do                                                                                                               c 0                                                                                                                                      l                                                                                                                                        l -gt  n     amp  amp  l 1                                                                                                                 while IFS  read -d   delim   -r col content do                                                                                             c                                                                                                                                    if     c -eq 1    then                                                                                                                      -n     grep -F        lt  lt  lt     col content            l 2                                                                              chars   sed -nl1000   l    lt  lt  lt     col content     grep -Eo                                          wc -l                               whitespaces      col length  1 1   - chars                                                                                             whitespaces   seq -s       whitespaces tr -d     digit                                                                                 col content 1      col content 1   col content whitespaces n                                                                         else                                                                                                                                     col content  c      col content  c    printf    -  col length    l  c    s       col content -         n                             fi                                                                                                                                   done  lt  lt  lt     line delim                                                                                                                 for   k  c 1 k lt   i max k     do                                                                                                          empty content     printf    -  col length    l  k    -  col length     last  k  -1   k    -0  s                                        col content  k      col content  k   empty content n                                                                                 done                                                                                                                                 done  lt   lt  git  1  amp  amp  echo                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       while read col num do                                                                                                                    if    -z    cont all      then                                                                                                           cont all   col content  col num                                                                                                      else                                                                                                                                     cont all   paste -d       lt  echo -e    cont all     lt  echo -e     col content  col num                                                 fi                                                                                                                                   done  lt  lt  lt    seq 2 1   git tre col -1  seq 1 seq      git tre col -1  1   1  i max                                                       echo -e    cont all                                                                                                                        git-tably    This is more or less only a part of my answer https   stackoverflow com a 61487052 8006273 where you can find deeper explanations  but nicely fits to this question here too   If there are problems with your git log commands leave a comment

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For those using the VSCode text editor  consider the Git History Extension by D  Jayamanne

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can we make it more complicated   How about simple git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph   remember A Dog   --All --Decorate --Oneline --Graph

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99 999  of my time is looking at history by git lg and the 0 001  is by git log   I just want to share two log aliases that might be useful  configure from  gitconfig     Alias       lg   log --graph --pretty format   Cred h Creset  ad  s  C yellow  d Creset  C bold blue  lt  an gt  Creset  --date short      hist   log --graph --full-history --all --pretty format   Cred h Creset  ad  s  C yellow  d Creset  C bold blue  lt  an gt  Creset  --date short    git lg will see the current branch history  git hist will see the whole branch history

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Another git log command  This one with fixed-width columns   git log --graph --pretty format   x09 h     lt  10 trunc  cd    lt  25 trunc  d    s  --date short

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I have this git log alias in    gitconfig to view the graph history    alias  l   log --all --graph --pretty format   C auto  h C auto  d  s  C dim white   aN   ar     With the alias in place  git l will show something like this     In Git 2 12  you can even customize the line colors of the graph using the log graphColors configuration option    As for the logs  format  it s similar to --oneline  with the addition of the author name  respecting  mailmap  and the relative author date  Note that the  C auto  syntax  which tells Git to use the default colors for commit hash  etc  is supported in Git    1 8 3

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I have 3 aliases  and 4 alias-aliases for quick usage  that I normally throw in my    gitconfig file    alias      lg   lg1     lg1   lg1-specific --all     lg2   lg2-specific --all     lg3   lg3-specific --all      lg1-specific   log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format format   C bold blue  h C reset  -  C bold green   ar  C reset   C white  s C reset   C dim white -  an C reset  C auto  d C reset       lg2-specific   log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format format   C bold blue  h C reset  -  C bold cyan  aD C reset   C bold green   ar  C reset  C auto  d C reset  n             C white  s C reset   C dim white -  an C reset       lg3-specific   log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format format   C bold blue  h C reset  -  C bold cyan  aD C reset   C bold green   ar  C reset   C bold cyan  committed   cD  C reset   C auto  d C reset  n             C white  s C reset  n             C dim white -  an  lt  ae gt   C reset   C dim white  committer   cn  lt  ce gt   C reset     git lg git lg1 looks like this     git lg2 looks like this     and git lg3 looks like this     It should be noted that this isn t meant as a end-all-be-all solution    it s a template for you to change  add to and fix up to your liking   If you want to use these  my recommendation is to    Add them to your  gitconfig  Customize to your liking  different color choices  different line arrangements for the 2- and 3-line versions  etc    And then save a copy to a Gist or other code snippet tool so you can copy  amp  paste it into  gitconfigs in the future  or alternatively version control your dotfiles  of course     Note  Answer copied from and improved upon the answer at stackoverflow com questions 1057564 pretty-git-branch-graphs since it s far more appropriate here than it was there     Left the copy on the other question for historical reasons    it s closed now  and the answer s referenced by a bunch of other answers

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Git official site enlisted some third party platform specific GUI tools  Hit here git GUI Tools for Linux Platform  I have used gitg and GitKraken for linux platform  Both good to understand the commit tree

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A nice web based tool is ungit  It runs on any platform that node js  amp  git supports  There is a video of how it works for those that find that sort of things easier than reading

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Gitk sometime painful for me to read     Motivate me to write GitVersionTree

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Use git log --graph or gitk   Both also accept --all  which will show all the branches instead of just the current one    For branch names and a compact view  try   git log --graph --decorate --oneline

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I ve tried --simplify-by-decoration but all my merges are not shown   So I instead just prune off lines with no     and     symbols at the headers  while always keeping lines with     indicating branches immediately after that   When showing branch history I m in general uninterested in commit comments  so I remove them too   I end up with the following shell alias   gbh           git log --graph --oneline --decorate        grep     0-9a-f         0-9a-f      0-9a-f           0-9a-f   0-9a-f         sed -e  s

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Nobody mentioned tig  It doesn t fold branches like  BranchMaster   but     It is fast  runs in the terminal   Because it is so quick    keyboard control  you get a great UX  it is almost like my  ls  for directories containing git repositories   https   jonas github io tig   It has the usual shortcuts    to search  etc      ps  it is the terminal in the background of this screenshot  it looks better nowadays  but my computer refuses to take a screenshot  sorry    pps  I use gitkraken as well and has really clear visualisations  but it s much heavier than tig

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Gitx is also a fantastic visualization tool if you happen to be on OS X

[git] Visualizing branch topology in Git

Examples related to git