Pretty git branch graphs

Question

I\'ve seen some books and articles have some really pretty looking graphs of git branches and commits. How can I make high-quality printable images of git history?

Answer 1

For OSX users, I've taken the @gospes example and slightly modified it for gsed (gnu-sed installed via homebrew) and adjusted the colors (to work with a black background, not sure how the original example could possibly render the way it does in the example since it specifies black text on a terminal with a black background).

[alias]
    # tree, vtree, stree support
    logx = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset)+%C(bold black)(%cr)%C(reset)+%C(auto)%d%C(reset)++\n+++       %C(bold black)%an%C(reset)%C(bold black): %s%C(reset)'
    tree = log --all --graph --decorate=short --color --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) %C(auto)%d%C(reset)\n         %C(bold black)[%cr]%C(reset)  %x09%C(bold black)%an: %s %C(reset)'
    stree = !bash -c '" \
    while IFS=+ read -r hash time branch message; do \
        timelength=$(echo \"$time\" | gsed -r \"s:[^ ][[]([0-9]{1,2}(;[0-9]{1,2})?)?m::g\"); \
        timelength=$(echo \"16+${#time}-${#timelength}\" | bc); \
        printf \"%${timelength}s    %s %s %s\n\" \"$time\" \"$hash\" \"$branch\" \"\"; \
    done < <(git logx && echo);"' | less -r
    vtree = !bash -c '" \
    while IFS=+ read -r hash time branch message; do \
      timelength=$(echo \"$time\" | gsed -r \"s:[^ ][[]([0-9]{1,2}(;[0-9]{1,2})?)?m::g\"); \
      timelength=$(echo \"16+${#time}-${#timelength}\" | bc); \
      printf \"%${timelength}s    %s %s %s\n\" \"$time\" \"$hash\" \"$branch\" \"$message\"; \
    done < <(git logx && echo);"' | less -r

The key for OSX is to first install gnu sed (which has the -r option). Most easily done with homebrew, which will not overwrite the system-installed sed, but will instead install gnu sed as "gsed". Hope this helps @SlippD.Thompson who commented above about OSX not working.