Git current branch commits list

Question

When you do a Pull Request in Github or Stash you get a list of the commit from your current branch.

What would be the git command to get a list of the commit which makes up the current branch without specifying the name of the branch which we started from?

Sascha Wolf · Answer 1 · 2014-10-31T09:22:18.997

1

In git it's not possible to only list commits for a specific branch without specifying references you want to exclude.

But you could determine the references programatically, such a command could look like this:

git log HEAD $(git branch -a | grep -v "^*" | grep -v "\->" | sed "s/^ /--not /")

For easier usage you could define an alias:

git config --global alias.branchlog '!git log HEAD $(git branch -a | grep -v "^*" | grep -v "\->" | sed "s/^ /--not /")'

And then just use it by typing git branchlog.

Note: If you want to ignore remote branches, you have to remove the -a option from the git branch -a call.

This command will log all commits which are ONLY reachable from the current HEAD. It achieves this by listing all branches (git branch -a), removing the current branch from the result and remote HEADs (grep -v "^*" and grep -v "\->"). In the last step it prepends --not to each branch to tell git log to exclude this reference.

Note: Remote HEADs look like this remote/origin/HEAD -> remote/origin/master and mess with git log.

If you would type the command by hand it could look like this:

git log HEAD --not master --not origin/master

edited Oct 31 '14 at 09:22

answered Oct 31 '14 at 08:14

Sascha Wolf

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I tried the command on Windows git bash and get "fatal: unrecognized argument: ->" Any idea? – Laurent Kempé Oct 31 '14 at 08:59
Please provide the output of `git branch -a`. – Sascha Wolf Oct 31 '14 at 09:02
And tell me which git version you are using (`git --version`). – Sascha Wolf Oct 31 '14 at 09:05
I am using git version 1.9.2.msysgit.0 – Laurent Kempé Oct 31 '14 at 09:10
ToNFluent * bugfix/2029-freezing-for-a-moment master release/4.24.0 remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master remotes/origin/ToNFluent remotes/origin/bugfix/2029-freezing-for-a-moment remotes/origin/master – Laurent Kempé Oct 31 '14 at 09:11
I see, the problem lies in your remote *HEAD*. I'll edit the answer with a fix. – Sascha Wolf Oct 31 '14 at 09:19
@LaurentKempé I updated the answer. It should work now. – Sascha Wolf Oct 31 '14 at 09:22
I get a list but with far too much commits, but I got the idea of the command so I might adapt it. – Laurent Kempé Oct 31 '14 at 09:33
It works perfectly fine on my system, what exactly does `git branch -a | grep -v "^*" | grep -v "\->" | sed "s/^ /--not /"` output for you? – Sascha Wolf Oct 31 '14 at 09:35
I removed the -a and get --not ToNFluent --not master --not release/4.24.0 – Laurent Kempé Oct 31 '14 at 09:39
Okay, it's difficult for me to determine what your output should look like. Maybe you currently haven't checked out the branch you are trying to log? – Sascha Wolf Oct 31 '14 at 09:42
I have checked out the branch. No worries you gave me the way to go, I will try to adapt and make it work on my machine. Thanks a lot – Laurent Kempé Oct 31 '14 at 09:50

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

You usually need to know from which branch you are coming from in order to list the commit specific to your current branch, as I explained in "Git log to get commits only for a specific branch"

Otherwise, you need to exclude the commits which are not part of only your branch (as suggested by dimirc):

git log mybranch --not $(git for-each-ref --format='%(refname)' refs/heads/ | grep -v "refs/heads/mybranch")

Or simpler, using git merge-base (if HEAD is not on your branch as in this question):

git log $(git merge-base HEAD branch)..branch

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 31 '14 at 08:17

change your current git branch

git branch - > to list out the branches in the repos (* indicates you are in that branch, your commits will come under this branch) if you want to see the commit of any of the branch then

git checkout branchname -> change the branch which you want to see the commits then

git log -> will show you the commits under the branch

Git current branch commits list

3 Answers3