Git Notes 001

I use an alias in my ~/.gitconfig called git hist¹, which looks like this:

hist = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit --date=relative

And outputs as (using this site as an example):

It’s insanely helpful but I had no idea how it worked (or what it meant) until just now.

So, here’s a quick look at what I learned:

• hist = log : create/start the alias identical to git log
• --graph : adds graphic on the left side to ‘illustrate’ commits, merges, rebases, etc.
• --pretty=format:[options] : show certain details (placeholders) about each commit and format them as specified.

Below is a list of those placeholders used here²:

• %h = abbreviated hash
• %d = ref name
• %s = subject (message in the commit; not decorated)
• %cr = committer date
• %an = author name

Colors are then added via %C[color-name]%[text-to-color]%Creset³.

Back to the point — the whole reason I started down this path is because I didn’t know how or why the refs are shown as they are:

(HEAD, origin/master, [other]/master], master)

I knew what HEAD meant (sort of). I knew what master meant (for sure). And I think I understood what was happening with origin/master.

Again, after more digging, I’ve found a more concise explanation:

• HEAD : A reference to the last commit in the current checked out branch (via Stack Overflow).
• origin/master : A reference to the remote you cloned the repo from…and where it will push to.
• [other]/master : Additional remotes that you can push to. In the case of Hartl’s rails tutorial, I have one that deploys to heroku via git push heroku.
• master : The branch I’m using and committing to locally.

It’s worth noting that I can use git remote show origin and git remote show heroku to see where they each point.

Whew! This took a while but even if it doesn’t stick I’ll have a place to jump back to! :octocat: