Number of Commits between two Commitishes

How can I find the number of commits between two commitishes in git?

Additionally, is there some way that I could do the same with any project on GitHub (using the UI, not the API)?

Before I give you an answer, consider this commit graph:

        o -----------
       /             \
... - A - o - o - o - B
       \         /
        o ----- o

Each o represents a commit, as do A and B (they're just letters to let us talk about specific commits). How many commits are there between commits A and B?

That said, in more linear cases, just use git rev-list --count A..B and then decide what you mean by "between" (does it include B and exclude A? that's how git rev-list --count will behave). In branchy cases like this, you'll get all the commits down all the branches; add --first-parent, for instance, to follow just the "main line".

(You also mentioned "commitish", suggesting that we might have annotated tags. That won't affect the output from git rev-list, which only counts specific commits.)

---

Edit: Since git rev-list --count A..B includes commit B (while omitting commit A), and you want to exclude both end-points, you need to subtract one. In modern shells you can do this with shell arithmetic:

count=$(($(git rev-list --count A..B) - 1))

For instance:

$ x=$(($(git rev-list --count HEAD~3..HEAD) - 1))
$ echo $x
2

(this particular repo has a very linear graph structure, so there are no branches here and there are two commits "between" the tip and three-behind-the-tip). Note, however, that this will produce -1 if A and B identify the same commit:

$ x=$(($(git rev-list --count HEAD..HEAD) - 1))
$ echo $x
-1

so you might want to check that first:

count=$(git rev-list --count $start..$end)
if [ $count -eq 0 ]; then
    ... possible error: start and end are the same commit ...
else
    count=$((count - 1))
fi

$ git log 375a1..58b20 --pretty=oneline | wc -l

Specify your start commit followed by your end commit, and then count the lines. That should be the count of commits between those two commit ranges. Use the --pretty=oneline formatting so that each commit takes up a single line.

Note that using two dots (375a1..58b20) is different than using three dots (375a1...58b20); see What are the differences between double-dot “..” and triple-dot “…” in Git commit ranges? for more information about this and to figure out which one you want to use.

As for the GUI in GitHub, I don't know of a way to accomplish this same task. But that should be trivial, as the above is the possible way to do it directly using Git and Bash.

Another ONE LINER

git rev-list newer ^older --pretty=oneline --count

Use revision numbers or SHAs:

git rev-list db8fb95e6256bd52a668bae82d8b5a73152869fa ^1aeae117c58c173fee9cb3550297498142887aa5 --pretty=oneline --count

• [newer] and [older] can be SHA’s, branches or tags.

• Important: If you have a complicated git graph you should read @torek 's excellent answer.

• Credit goes to @matt wilkie in his comment and the original source.