git log

Updated: 30 November 2025

All the refs in refs/

git log --all

All the refs in refs/heads

git log --branches

All the refs in refs/remotes

git log --remotes

All the refs in refs/tags

git log --no-walk --tags

Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history

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

Refresh git log periodically (every second) with watch utility

watch --color -n 1 git log --graph --oneline --decorate --all --color=always

Show commit which added a file

git log --diff-filter=A -- dotnet.code-workspace

Shows commits that changed a single file, including those commits that occurred before the file was given its present name.

git log --follow builtin/rev-list.c

Find commits by a particular author

git log --author='Chris Taylor'

Be very explicit, with a pretty format

git log --pretty=format:'%C(magenta)%h%Creset %C(bold)%s%C(bold yellow)%d %C(green)%ad %C(cyan)%an'