How to find the nearest parent of a Git branch?

Question

Let\'s say I have the following local repository with a commit tree like this:

master --> a
            \\
             \\
      develop c --> d
               


        

Answer 1

vbc=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
vbc_col=$(( $(git show-branch | grep '^[^\[]*\*' | head -1 | cut -d* -f1 | wc -c) - 1 )) 
swimming_lane_start_row=$(( $(git show-branch | grep -n "^[\-]*$" | cut -d: -f1) + 1 )) 
git show-branch | tail -n +$swimming_lane_start_row | grep -v "^[^\[]*\[$vbc" | grep "^.\{$vbc_col\}[^ ]" | head -n1 | sed 's/.*\[\(.*\)\].*/\1/' | sed 's/[\^~].*//'

Achieves the same ends as Mark Reed's answer, but uses a much safer approach that doesn't misbehave in a number of scenarios:

1. Parent branch's last commit is a merge, making the column show - not *
2. Commit message contains branch name
3. Commit message contains *