Documentation / git-show-branch.txton commit git-merge-base/git-show-branch: Cleanup documentation and usage (995bdc7)
   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 | --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 $GIT_DIR/refs/heads
  24and/or $GIT_DIR/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:git-rev-parse[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        $GIT_DIR/refs.  For example, if you have many topic
  41        branches under $GIT_DIR/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, just act like the
  86        'git-merge-base -a' command, except that it can accept
  87        more than two heads.
  88
  89--independent::
  90        Among the <reference>s given, display only the ones that
  91        cannot be reached from any other <reference>.
  92
  93--no-name::
  94        Do not show naming strings for each commit.
  95
  96--sha1-name::
  97        Instead of naming the commits using the path to reach
  98        them from heads (e.g. "master~2" to mean the grandparent
  99        of "master"), name them with the unique prefix of their
 100        object names.
 101
 102--topics::
 103        Shows only commits that are NOT on the first branch given.
 104        This helps track topic branches by hiding any commit that
 105        is already in the main line of development.  When given
 106        "git show-branch --topics master topic1 topic2", this
 107        will show the revisions given by "git rev-list {caret}master
 108        topic1 topic2"
 109
 110-g::
 111--reflog[=<n>[,<base>]] [<ref>]::
 112        Shows <n> most recent ref-log entries for the given
 113        ref.  If <base> is given, <n> entries going back from
 114        that entry.  <base> can be specified as count or date.
 115        When no explicit <ref> parameter is given, it defaults to the
 116        current branch (or `HEAD` if it is detached).
 117
 118--color::
 119        Color the status sign (one of these: `*` `!` `+` `-`) of each commit
 120        corresponding to the branch it's in.
 121
 122--no-color::
 123        Turn off colored output, even when the configuration file gives the
 124        default to color output.
 125
 126Note that --more, --list, --independent and --merge-base options
 127are mutually exclusive.
 128
 129
 130OUTPUT
 131------
 132Given N <references>, the first N lines are the one-line
 133description from their commit message.  The branch head that is
 134pointed at by $GIT_DIR/HEAD is prefixed with an asterisk `*`
 135character while other heads are prefixed with a `!` character.
 136
 137Following these N lines, one-line log for each commit is
 138displayed, indented N places.  If a commit is on the I-th
 139branch, the I-th indentation character shows a `+` sign;
 140otherwise it shows a space.  Merge commits are denoted by
 141a `-` sign.  Each commit shows a short name that
 142can be used as an extended SHA1 to name that commit.
 143
 144The following example shows three branches, "master", "fixes"
 145and "mhf":
 146
 147------------------------------------------------
 148$ git show-branch master fixes mhf
 149* [master] Add 'git show-branch'.
 150 ! [fixes] Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"
 151  ! [mhf] Allow "+remote:local" refspec to cause --force when fetching.
 152---
 153  + [mhf] Allow "+remote:local" refspec to cause --force when fetching.
 154  + [mhf~1] Use git-octopus when pulling more than one heads.
 155 +  [fixes] Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"
 156  + [mhf~2] "git fetch --force".
 157  + [mhf~3] Use .git/remote/origin, not .git/branches/origin.
 158  + [mhf~4] Make "git pull" and "git fetch" default to origin
 159  + [mhf~5] Infamous 'octopus merge'
 160  + [mhf~6] Retire git-parse-remote.
 161  + [mhf~7] Multi-head fetch.
 162  + [mhf~8] Start adding the $GIT_DIR/remotes/ support.
 163*++ [master] Add 'git show-branch'.
 164------------------------------------------------
 165
 166These three branches all forked from a common commit, [master],
 167whose commit message is "Add \'git show-branch\'". The "fixes"
 168branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"".
 169The "mhf" branch adds many other commits. The current branch
 170is "master".
 171
 172
 173EXAMPLE
 174-------
 175
 176If you keep your primary branches immediately under
 177`$GIT_DIR/refs/heads`, and topic branches in subdirectories of
 178it, having the following in the configuration file may help:
 179
 180------------
 181[showbranch]
 182        default = --topo-order
 183        default = heads/*
 184
 185------------
 186
 187With this, `git show-branch` without extra parameters would show
 188only the primary branches.  In addition, if you happen to be on
 189your topic branch, it is shown as well.
 190
 191------------
 192$ git show-branch --reflog="10,1 hour ago" --list master
 193------------
 194
 195shows 10 reflog entries going back from the tip as of 1 hour ago.
 196Without `--list`, the output also shows how these tips are
 197topologically related with each other.
 198
 199
 200Author
 201------
 202Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 203
 204
 205Documentation
 206--------------
 207Documentation by Junio C Hamano.
 208
 209
 210GIT
 211---
 212Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite