Git Logs

Git Log is one of the most powerful commands in Git. It allows developers to view the entire commit history of a repository - helping them track changes, review project progress, and identify when and by whom changes were made.

Understanding Git Logs is essential for effective version control and collaboration in any project.

Git log displays a list of all commits made in a repository in reverse chronological order (latest commit first).
It shows detailed information about each commit, including:

• Commit hash (ID) – a unique identifier for each commit.
• Author name and email – who made the commit.
• Date and time – when the commit was made.
• Commit message – a short description of the change.

Basic Syntax

git log

Running this command shows a detailed list of all commits in your repository.

Example output:

Each entry represents one commit.

Useful Git Log Options

Git Log has many options to customize how you view the commit history.

Here are some of the most commonly used ones:

1. View a Compact One-Line Log

Shows each commit in a single line (commit hash and message only).

git log --oneline

2. Show Graph of Branches

Displays a visual branch structure along with commits.

git log --oneline --graph

Helps to understand how different branches have diverged and merged.

3. Show Commits by a Specific Author

View only commits made by a particular developer.

git log --author="Alice"

Useful for reviewing contributions by a specific team member.

4. Filter Commits by Date

View commits within a certain date range.

git log --after="2025-09-01" --before="2025-10-01"

Helps track progress during specific development periods.

5. Search Commits by Message Keyword

Find commits with specific keywords in their message.

git log --grep="bug fix"

Useful for locating when a specific feature or fix was introduced.

6. View Files Changed in Each Commit

Show the list of modified files in each commit.

git log --stat

Displays file-level changes and total insertions/deletions.

7. See the Actual Code Changes

To view the full diff (code changes) in each commit:

git log -p

This is very detailed — great for code review and debugging.

Combining Multiple Options

You can also combine options to customize your log view:

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

Displays a compact, colorful, and structured commit history - ideal for understanding the overall repository structure.

Colorizing Git Logs

You can add colors to your Git logs to make them more readable and visually organized.

1. Basic Colored Log

git log --oneline --graph --decorate --color

• --color → Forces Git to show output with colors.
• Combined with --graph and --decorate, it highlights branches, tags, and commits in different colors.

2. Always Color Git Logs

To make Git always display colors, set the configuration globally:

git config --global color.ui auto

• auto - Git will use colors when output is to a terminal.
• always - Forces colors even when output is piped (less common).
• never - Disables color.

3. Example Output (Colored)

• Branch names - green
• Tags - yellow
• Commit hashes - red/magenta
• Commit messages - default or white

This makes it much easier to scan commits visually, especially in large projects.

4. Combine With Other Options

You can combine color with your favorite log command:

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

• Shows all branches
• Displays a graph of commits
• Highlights branches, tags, and commit hashes with color

Log Search : Finding Specific Commits

Git provides several ways to search through commit history, making it easier to locate specific changes, messages, authors, or dates.

1. Search by Commit Message

Use the --grep option to find commits containing specific keywords in their messages:

git log --grep="fix bug"

• Finds all commits with “fix bug” in their commit message.
• Useful for tracking specific features, fixes, or changes.

2. Search by Author

To see all commits made by a particular developer:

git log --author="Alice"

3. Search by Date

Filter commits by a date range using --after and --before:

git log --after="2025-09-01" --before="2025-10-01"

• Shows commits made between the specified dates.
• Useful for tracking work done in a sprint or project phase.

4. Search by File Changes

To see commits that affected a particular file:

git log -- <file-path>

5. Search by Commit Hash

If you know part of the commit hash, you can search for it directly:

git log a1b2c3

Displays the full commit with that hash or any partial match.

6. Combining Search Options

You can combine multiple search filters for precise results:

git log --author="Alice" --grep="login" --after="2025-09-01"

7. git shortlog

Basically it displays the log output format in the following syntax:

Committer1(number of commits)

• Commit Message 1
• Commit Message  2
• Commit Message n

where n represents the last commit message number committed by the author 

Committer2(number of commits)

• Commit Message 1
• Commit Message  2
• Commit Message n

where n represents the last commit message number committed by the author

Here, only my commits are shown since I’m the sole contributor. In larger projects, you’ll see multiple developers with their commit counts and messages. The git shortlog command also includes various options to customize its output.

8. git grep

So how git grep works is if you want to fetch where a particular string exists in a file or whether a particular string is associated with a particular commit id. In such cases git grep is a very useful command. Just you have to pass a particular string in the command when checking for the existence of a  string in a file and when checking for a particular string in a commit id mention the string in double quotes.

For a range of lines within a file: The command would be the same git log just some new parameters we have to pass in it for checking for a range of lines within a file. The command is: 

git log -L starting_line_number,ending_line_number:file_name here -L denotes the line range for a file.

9. Filter logs:

In this concept, we will see various parameters used in the command to filter logs. 

• For some days: git log --after 'mention the days ago' 
• for e.g:  git log --after '4 days ago'
• For specific dates: git log --after year_number-month_number-date_number
• For Author name: git log --author="Author_name"

We can also use the since clause instead of after in this command.

10. Changes inline

If our use-case is to see the logs with changes inline we use a parameter -p or --patch to see the logs with changes inline.

11. Committed files

If you want to see the files in logs that are being committed by commits. we use the command 

git log --stat

Contents of a Commit:  

Now if you want to view the contents of a commit you can use a simple command

git show commit-id

Committer name and time since commit

Now if you want to see the committer name and time since he committed in oneline. We use the  following command

git log --oneline --decorate --source --pretty=format:'"%Cblue %h %Cgreen %ar %Cblue %an %C(yellow) %d %Creset %s"' --all --graph

Suggested Quiz

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5 Questions

What does the git log command primarily display?

• A

  List of staged files
  

• B

  Complete history of commits in reverse chronological order

• C

  List of merged branches only

• D

  Only the latest commit

Explanation:

git log shows the entire commit history with latest commits first, including hash, author, date, and message.

Which command shows each commit in a compact one-line format?

• A

  git log --stat
  

• B

  git log -p

• C

  git log --oneline

• D

  git log --author="Alice"

Explanation:

git log --oneline displays commits in single-line format, useful for quick browsing.

To visually display commit history along with branch structure, which command is used?

• A

  git log --graph --oneline
  

• B

  git log --stat

• C

  git show

• D

  git log --patch

Explanation:

--graph draws the branch structure, and --oneline compresses output for better readability.

Which command lists commit history with files changed, insertions, and deletions?

• A

  git log -p
  

• B

  git log --stat

• C

  git shortlog -s

• D

  git grep "fix"

Explanation:

git log --stat shows commit details with file-level statistics like additions and deletions.

What is the purpose of git shortlog?

• A

  Shows file differences inside commits
  

• B

  Lists commits grouped by author with commit count

• C

  Deletes old commit logs

• D

  Filters logs based on date only

Explanation:

git shortlog organizes commits per contributor, showing number of commits and commit messages.

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