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

GitGraph

Generates a PNG or SVG representation of your Git repository's commit history.

https://code.google.com/p/gitgraph

Answer 2

Based on a Graphviz script I found in an answer to a related question, I've hacked up a ruby script that creates a summary view of a git repository. It elides all linear history and just shows "interesting" commits, i.e. those with multiple parents, multiple children, or pointed to by a branch or tag. Here's a snippet of the graph it generates for jquery:

git-big-picture and BranchMaster are similar tools that try to show only the high-level structure of a graph, by only displaying how tags, branches, merges, etc. are related.

This question has some more options.

Answer 3

Although sometimes I use gitg, always come back to command line:

[alias]
    #quick look at all repo
    loggsa = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --simplify-by-decoration --all
    #quick look at active branch (or refs pointed)
    loggs  = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --simplify-by-decoration
    #extend look at all repo
    logga  = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate --all
    #extend look at active branch
    logg   = log --color --date-order --graph --oneline --decorate
    #Look with date
    logda  = log --color --date-order --date=local --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ad%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\" --all
    logd   = log --color --date-order --date=local --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ad%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\"        
    #Look with relative date
    logdra = log --color --date-order --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ar%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\" --all
    logdr = log --color --date-order --graph --format=\"%C(auto)%h%Creset %C(blue bold)%ar%Creset %C(auto)%d%Creset %s\"  

    loga   = log --graph --color --decorate --all

    # For repos without subject body commits (vim repo, git-svn clones)
    logt  = log --graph --color --format=\"%C(auto)%h %d %<|(100,trunc) %s\"
    logta  = log --graph --color --format=\"%C(auto)%h %d %<|(100,trunc) %s\" --all        
    logtsa = log --graph --color --format=\"%C(auto)%h %d %<|(100,trunc) %s\" --all --simplify-by-decoration 

As you can see is almost a keystroke saving aliases, based on:

• --color: clear look
• --graph: visualize parents
• --date-order: most understandable look at repo
• --decorate: who is who
• --oneline: Many times all you need to know about a commit
• --simplify-by-decoration: basic for a first look (just tags, relevant merges, branches)
• --all: saving keystrokes with all alias with and without this option
• --date=relative (%ar): Understand activity in repo (sometimes a branch is few commits near master but months ago from him)

See in recent version of git (1.8.5 and above) you can benefit from %C(auto) in decorate placeholder %d

From here all you need is a good understand of gitrevisions to filter whatever you need (something like master..develop, where --simplify-merges could help with long term branches)

The power behind command line is the quickly config based on your needs (understand a repo isn't a unique key log configuration, so adding --numstat, or --raw, or --name-status is sometimes needed. Here git log and aliases are fast, powerful and (with time) the prettiest graph you can achieved. Even more, with output showed by default through a pager (say less) you can always search quickly inside results. Not convinced? You can always parse the result with projects like gitgraph

Answer 4

some aliases in ~/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/git/git.plugin.zsh

gke='\gitk --all $(git log -g --pretty=%h)'
glg='git log --stat'
glgg='git log --graph'
glgga='git log --graph --decorate --all'
glgm='git log --graph --max-count=10'
glgp='git log --stat -p'
glo='git log --oneline --decorate'
glog='git log --oneline --decorate --graph'
gloga='git log --oneline --decorate --graph --all'
glol='git log --graph --pretty='\''%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'\'' --abbrev-commit'
glola='git log --graph --pretty='\''%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'\'' --abbrev-commit --all'

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

This is my take on this matter:

Screenshot:

Usage:

git hist - Show the history of current branch

git hist --all - Show the graph of all branches (including remotes)

git hist master devel - Show the relationship between two or more branches

git hist --branches - Show all local branches

Add --topo-order to sort commits topologically, instead of by date (default in this alias)

Benefits:

• Looks just like plain --decorate, so with separate colors for different branch names
• Adds committer email
• Adds commit relative and absolute date
• Sorts commits by date

Setup:

git config --global alias.hist "log --graph --date-order --date=short \
--pretty=format:'%C(auto)%h%d %C(reset)%s %C(bold blue)%ce %C(reset)%C(green)%cr (%cd)'"