How to read git log graph
GitGit BranchGit LogGit Problem Overview
In the git community book, it says
> Another interesting thing you can do is visualize the commit graph with the '--graph' option, like so:
>
$ git log --pretty=format:'%h : %s' --graph
* 2d3acf9 : ignore errors from SIGCHLD on trap
* 5e3ee11 : Merge branch 'master' of git://github.com/dustin/grit
|
| * 420eac9 : Added a method for getting the current branch.
* | 30e367c : timeout code and tests
* | 5a09431 : add timeout protection to grit
* | e1193f8 : support for heads with slashes in them
|/
* d6016bc : require time for xmlschema
> It will give a pretty nice ASCII representation of the commit history lines.
How should I read this graph? How does 420eac9
differ from the rest?
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
The asterisks show where something was committed:
e1193f8
, 5a09431
and 30e367c
were committed to the left branch (yielding a |
on the right branch) whereas 420eac9
was committed to the right branch (yielding a |
on the left branch). And that is how 420eac9
differs from the rest: it's the only commit to the right branch.
For the sake of completeness:
d6016bc
was the branching point5e3ee11
is the merging commit2d3acf9
is the first commit after merging
Solution 2 - Git
420eac9
is on a different branch than the 3 commits "below" it. The branches diverged after d6016bc
and they were merged in 5e3ee11
.