Documentation / git-show-branch.txton commit Use parentheses and `...' where appropriate (0adda93)
   1git-show-branch(1)
   2==================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-show-branch - Show branches and their commits
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git show-branch' [-a|--all] [-r|--remotes] [--topo-order | --date-order]
  12                [--current] [--color[=<when>] | --no-color] [--sparse]
  13                [--more=<n> | --list | --independent | --merge-base]
  14                [--no-name | --sha1-name] [--topics]
  15                [(<rev> | <glob>)...]
  16
  17'git show-branch' (-g|--reflog)[=<n>[,<base>]] [--list] [<ref>]
  18
  19DESCRIPTION
  20-----------
  21
  22Shows the commit ancestry graph starting from the commits named
  23with <rev>s or <globs>s (or all refs under refs/heads
  24and/or refs/tags) semi-visually.
  25
  26It cannot show more than 29 branches and commits at a time.
  27
  28It uses `showbranch.default` multi-valued configuration items if
  29no <rev> nor <glob> is given on the command line.
  30
  31
  32OPTIONS
  33-------
  34<rev>::
  35        Arbitrary extended SHA1 expression (see linkgit:gitrevisions[1])
  36        that typically names a branch head or a tag.
  37
  38<glob>::
  39        A glob pattern that matches branch or tag names under
  40        refs/.  For example, if you have many topic
  41        branches under refs/heads/topic, giving
  42        `topic/*` would show all of them.
  43
  44-r::
  45--remotes::
  46        Show the remote-tracking branches.
  47
  48-a::
  49--all::
  50        Show both remote-tracking branches and local branches.
  51
  52--current::
  53        With this option, the command includes the current
  54        branch to the list of revs to be shown when it is not
  55        given on the command line.
  56
  57--topo-order::
  58        By default, the branches and their commits are shown in
  59        reverse chronological order.  This option makes them
  60        appear in topological order (i.e., descendant commits
  61        are shown before their parents).
  62
  63--date-order::
  64        This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
  65        parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise commits
  66        are ordered according to their commit date.
  67
  68--sparse::
  69        By default, the output omits merges that are reachable
  70        from only one tip being shown.  This option makes them
  71        visible.
  72
  73--more=<n>::
  74        Usually the command stops output upon showing the commit
  75        that is the common ancestor of all the branches.  This
  76        flag tells the command to go <n> more common commits
  77        beyond that.  When <n> is negative, display only the
  78        <reference>s given, without showing the commit ancestry
  79        tree.
  80
  81--list::
  82        Synonym to `--more=-1`
  83
  84--merge-base::
  85        Instead of showing the commit list, determine possible
  86        merge bases for the specified commits. All merge bases
  87        will be contained in all specified commits. This is
  88        different from how linkgit:git-merge-base[1] handles
  89        the case of three or more commits.
  90
  91--independent::
  92        Among the <reference>s given, display only the ones that
  93        cannot be reached from any other <reference>.
  94
  95--no-name::
  96        Do not show naming strings for each commit.
  97
  98--sha1-name::
  99        Instead of naming the commits using the path to reach
 100        them from heads (e.g. "master~2" to mean the grandparent
 101        of "master"), name them with the unique prefix of their
 102        object names.
 103
 104--topics::
 105        Shows only commits that are NOT on the first branch given.
 106        This helps track topic branches by hiding any commit that
 107        is already in the main line of development.  When given
 108        "git show-branch --topics master topic1 topic2", this
 109        will show the revisions given by "git rev-list {caret}master
 110        topic1 topic2"
 111
 112-g::
 113--reflog[=<n>[,<base>]] [<ref>]::
 114        Shows <n> most recent ref-log entries for the given
 115        ref.  If <base> is given, <n> entries going back from
 116        that entry.  <base> can be specified as count or date.
 117        When no explicit <ref> parameter is given, it defaults to the
 118        current branch (or `HEAD` if it is detached).
 119
 120--color[=<when>]::
 121        Color the status sign (one of these: `*` `!` `+` `-`) of each commit
 122        corresponding to the branch it's in.
 123        The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.
 124
 125--no-color::
 126        Turn off colored output, even when the configuration file gives the
 127        default to color output.
 128        Same as `--color=never`.
 129
 130Note that --more, --list, --independent and --merge-base options
 131are mutually exclusive.
 132
 133
 134OUTPUT
 135------
 136Given N <references>, the first N lines are the one-line
 137description from their commit message.  The branch head that is
 138pointed at by $GIT_DIR/HEAD is prefixed with an asterisk `*`
 139character while other heads are prefixed with a `!` character.
 140
 141Following these N lines, one-line log for each commit is
 142displayed, indented N places.  If a commit is on the I-th
 143branch, the I-th indentation character shows a `+` sign;
 144otherwise it shows a space.  Merge commits are denoted by
 145a `-` sign.  Each commit shows a short name that
 146can be used as an extended SHA1 to name that commit.
 147
 148The following example shows three branches, "master", "fixes"
 149and "mhf":
 150
 151------------------------------------------------
 152$ git show-branch master fixes mhf
 153* [master] Add 'git show-branch'.
 154 ! [fixes] Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"
 155  ! [mhf] Allow "+remote:local" refspec to cause --force when fetching.
 156---
 157  + [mhf] Allow "+remote:local" refspec to cause --force when fetching.
 158  + [mhf~1] Use git-octopus when pulling more than one heads.
 159 +  [fixes] Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"
 160  + [mhf~2] "git fetch --force".
 161  + [mhf~3] Use .git/remote/origin, not .git/branches/origin.
 162  + [mhf~4] Make "git pull" and "git fetch" default to origin
 163  + [mhf~5] Infamous 'octopus merge'
 164  + [mhf~6] Retire git-parse-remote.
 165  + [mhf~7] Multi-head fetch.
 166  + [mhf~8] Start adding the $GIT_DIR/remotes/ support.
 167*++ [master] Add 'git show-branch'.
 168------------------------------------------------
 169
 170These three branches all forked from a common commit, [master],
 171whose commit message is "Add {apostrophe}git show-branch{apostrophe}".
 172The "fixes" branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to
 173"git reset"". The "mhf" branch adds many other commits.
 174The current branch is "master".
 175
 176
 177EXAMPLE
 178-------
 179
 180If you keep your primary branches immediately under
 181`refs/heads`, and topic branches in subdirectories of
 182it, having the following in the configuration file may help:
 183
 184------------
 185[showbranch]
 186        default = --topo-order
 187        default = heads/*
 188
 189------------
 190
 191With this, `git show-branch` without extra parameters would show
 192only the primary branches.  In addition, if you happen to be on
 193your topic branch, it is shown as well.
 194
 195------------
 196$ git show-branch --reflog="10,1 hour ago" --list master
 197------------
 198
 199shows 10 reflog entries going back from the tip as of 1 hour ago.
 200Without `--list`, the output also shows how these tips are
 201topologically related with each other.
 202
 203
 204Author
 205------
 206Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 207
 208
 209Documentation
 210--------------
 211Documentation by Junio C Hamano.
 212
 213
 214GIT
 215---
 216Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite