How to output git log with the first line only?

Question

I am trying to customize the format for git log. I want all commits to be shown in one line. Each line should only show the first line of the commit message.
I

Answer 1

if you only want the first line of the messages (the subject):

git log --pretty=format:"%s"

and if you want all the messages on this branch going back to master:

git log --pretty=format:"%s" master..HEAD

Last but not least, if you want to add little bullets for quick markdown release notes:

git log --pretty=format:"- %s" master..HEAD

Answer 2

Better and easier git log by making an alias. Paste the code below to terminal just once for one session. Paste the code to zshrc or bash profile to make it persistant.

git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit"

Output

git lg

Output changed lines

git lg -p

Alternatively (recommended)
Paste this code to global .gitconfig file

[alias]
  lg = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit

Further Reading.
https://coderwall.com/p/euwpig/a-better-git-log
Advanced Reading.
http://durdn.com/blog/2012/11/22/must-have-git-aliases-advanced-examples/

Answer 3

If you don't want hashes and just the first lines (subject lines):

git log --pretty=format:%s

Answer 4

Without commit messages, only the hash:

git log --pretty=oneline | awk '{print $1}'

Answer 5

if you want to always use git log in such way you could add git alias by

git config --global alias.log log --oneline

after that git log will print what normally would be printed by git log --oneline

Answer 6

You can define a global alias so you can invoke a short log in a more comfortable way:

git config --global alias.slog "log --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit"

Then you can call it using git slog (it even works with autocompletion if you have it enabled).