Git pretty format colors

Question

I\'m trying to set up pretty format colors for Git. From what I can tell version 1.6.0 only recognizes red, green and blue.

$ git log --pretty=format:\"%Cre         


        

Answer 1

Share my git log format:

$ git log --graph --pretty=format:'%C(magenta)%h%Creset -%C(red)%d%Creset %s %C(dim green)(%cr) %C(cyan)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit

You can also add an alias into ~/.gitconfig:

[alias]
    logs  = log --graph --pretty=format:'%C(magenta)%h%Creset -%C(red)%d%Creset %s %C(dim green)(%cr) %C(cyan)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit

then you can use alias as you define in ~/.gitconfig.

$ git logs

Answer 2

I do not have an old version of git to verify that the colors other than red, blue and green are supported.

Although, one thing I noticed even with the recent versions of git (like 1.7.10 I used) is that colors other than red, green and blue need to be within parentheses (). For red, green and blue, the parentheses are optional.

So give this a try:

git log --pretty=format:"%Credred%Creset %Cgreengreen%Creset %C(Yellow)yellow%Creset %Cblueblue%Creset %C(magenta)magenta%Creset %C(cyan)cyan%Creset %C(white)white%Creset"

The list of colors I'm aware of at least are:

normal
black
red
green
yellow
blue
magenta
cyan
white

It can be combined with one of these attributes:

bold
dim
ul
blink
reverse
italic
strike
bright  # (Git 2.26, Q1 2020, example: brightred)

If you're trying to change colors using .gitconfig you should be able to specify two colors - foreground and background and you can combine it with an attribute.

Answer 3

Here are two aliases that I wrote once I understood the syntax of using custom hexadecimal color values as shown in @VonC 's answer.

There are four versions, the only difference is the --graph directive and the 'f' versions will also show you files that were added, deleted or modified:

[alias]
    lg = log --graph --pretty=format:"%C(#cd9a00)%h\\%C(#0080ff)\\ <%an>\\ %C(#17b062)(%cr)\\ %d\\%C(#c0d6de)%s"    
    l1 = log --pretty=format:"%C(#cd9a00)%h\\%C(#0080ff)\\ <%an>\\ %C(#17b062)(%cr)\\ %d\\%C(#c0d6de)%s"    
    lgf = log --name-status --graph --pretty=format:"%C(#cd9a00)%h\\%C(#0080ff)\\ <%an>\\ %C(#17b062)(%cr)\\ %d\\%C(#c0d6de)%s" 
    l1f = log --name-status --pretty=format:"%C(#cd9a00)%h\\%C(#0080ff)\\ <%an>\\ %C(#17b062)(%cr)\\ %d\\%C(#c0d6de)%s"

I used this site to pick the exact colors I wanted and then copied the hex value from it:

https://www.colorhexa.com/

For Windows, open up your .gitconfig file that resides in your "C:\Users\YourUserName" Folder and add an alias section as depicted above.

Hope you like them.

Answer 4

I am using Ubuntu 18.04 and I was able to use Xiaofei HAN's suggestions.

For beginner trying to complete this, I had the best luck by editing the .gitconfig.

nano ~/.gitconfig

paste [alias] block from above under the existing text

CTRL + O (to write out) + CTRL + X (to close nano)

After doing this, to see the pretty colors you can use

git logs

using

'git log' will get you the view without the colors,

same for 'git logs --oneline', except that one will show the flourish on the side

thank you, i hope this helps someone

Answer 5

Git 2.3.0 (February 2015) will allow (thanks to Jeff Kink (peff)):

---

• 24-bits RGB color values (commit 17a4be2)

parse_color: support 24-bit RGB values

Some terminals (like XTerm) allow full 24-bit RGB color specifications using an extension to the regular ANSI color scheme.
Let's allow users to specify hex RGB colors, enabling the all-important feature of hot pink ref decorations:

git log --format="%h%C(#ff69b4)%d%C(reset) %s"

---

• a better management of color attributes:

parse_color: recognize "no$foo" to clear the $foo attribute

You can turn on ANSI text attributes like "reverse" by putting "reverse" in your color spec. However, you cannot ask to turn reverse off.

For common cases, this does not matter. You would turn on "reverse" at the start of a colored section, and then clear all attributes with a "reset".

However, you may wish to turn on some attributes, then selectively disable others. For example:

git log --format="%C(bold ul yellow)%h%C(noul) %s"

underlines just the hash, but without the need to re-specify the rest of the attributes.

This can also help third-party programs, like contrib/diff-highlight, that want to turn some attribute on/off without disrupting existing coloring.

Note that some attribute specifications are probably nonsensical (e.g., "bold nobold"). We do not bother to flag such constructs, and instead let the terminal sort it out.

---

With Git 2.26 (Q1 2020), the basic 7 colors learned the brighter counterparts (e.g. "brightred").

See commit c444f03, commit 1751b09, commit 4a28eb0 (21 Jan 2020) by Eyal Soha (``).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 87f17d7, 25 Feb 2020)}

color.c: support bright aixterm colors

^{Signed-off-by: Eyal Soha}

These colors are the bright variants of the 3-bit colors.

Instead of 30-37 range for the foreground and 40-47 range for the background, they live in 90-97 and 100-107 range, respectively.

The git config documentation now includes:

The basic colors accepted are normal, black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white.
The first color given is the foreground; the second is the background.

All the basic colors except normal have a bright variant that can be specified by prefixing the color with bright, like brightred.