GIT-WHATCHANGED(1) Git Manual GIT-WHATCHANGED(1)
NAME
git-whatchanged - Show logs with difference each commit introduces
SYNOPSIS
git whatchanged <option>...
DESCRIPTION
Shows commit logs and diff output each commit introduces. The command
internally invokes git rev-list piped to git diff-tree, and takes
command line options for both of these commands.
This manual page describes only the most frequently used options.
OPTIONS
-p
Show textual diffs, instead of the Git internal diff output format
that is useful only to tell the changed paths and their nature of
changes.
-<n>
Limit output to <n> commits.
<since>..<until>
Limit output to between the two named commits (bottom exclusive,
top inclusive).
-r
Show Git internal diff output, but for the whole tree, not just the
top level.
-m
By default, differences for merge commits are not shown. With this
flag, show differences to that commit from all of its parents.
However, it is not very useful in general, although it is useful on
a file-by-file basis.
--pretty[=<format>], --format=<format>
Pretty-print the contents of the commit logs in a given format,
where <format> can be one of oneline, short, medium, full, fuller,
email, raw and format:<string>. See the "PRETTY FORMATS" section
for some additional details for each format. When omitted, the
format defaults to medium.
Note: you can specify the default pretty format in the repository
configuration (see git-config(1)).
--abbrev-commit
Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal commit object name,
show only a partial prefix. Non default number of digits can be
specified with "--abbrev=<n>" (which also modifies diff output, if
it is displayed).
This should make "--pretty=oneline" a whole lot more readable for
people using 80-column terminals.
--no-abbrev-commit
Show the full 40-byte hexadecimal commit object name. This negates
--abbrev-commit and those options which imply it such as
"--oneline". It also overrides the log.abbrevCommit variable.
--oneline
This is a shorthand for "--pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit" used
together.
--encoding[=<encoding>]
The commit objects record the encoding used for the log message in
their encoding header; this option can be used to tell the command
to re-code the commit log message in the encoding preferred by the
user. For non plumbing commands this defaults to UTF-8.
--notes[=<ref>]
Show the notes (see git-notes(1)) that annotate the commit, when
showing the commit log message. This is the default for git log,
git show and git whatchanged commands when there is no --pretty,
--format nor --oneline option given on the command line.
By default, the notes shown are from the notes refs listed in the
core.notesRef and notes.displayRef variables (or corresponding
environment overrides). See git-config(1) for more details.
With an optional <ref> argument, show this notes ref instead of the
default notes ref(s). The ref is taken to be in refs/notes/ if it
is not qualified.
Multiple --notes options can be combined to control which notes are
being displayed. Examples: "--notes=foo" will show only notes from
"refs/notes/foo"; "--notes=foo --notes" will show both notes from
"refs/notes/foo" and from the default notes ref(s).
--no-notes
Do not show notes. This negates the above --notes option, by
resetting the list of notes refs from which notes are shown.
Options are parsed in the order given on the command line, so e.g.
"--notes --notes=foo --no-notes --notes=bar" will only show notes
from "refs/notes/bar".
--show-notes[=<ref>], --[no-]standard-notes
These options are deprecated. Use the above --notes/--no-notes
options instead.
--show-signature
Check the validity of a signed commit object by passing the
signature to gpg --verify and show the output.
PRETTY FORMATS
If the commit is a merge, and if the pretty-format is not oneline,
email or raw, an additional line is inserted before the Author: line.
This line begins with "Merge: " and the sha1s of ancestral commits are
printed, separated by spaces. Note that the listed commits may not
necessarily be the list of the direct parent commits if you have
limited your view of history: for example, if you are only interested
in changes related to a certain directory or file.
There are several built-in formats, and you can define additional
formats by setting a pretty.<name> config option to either another
format name, or a format: string, as described below (see git-
config(1)). Here are the details of the built-in formats:
o oneline
<sha1> <title line>
This is designed to be as compact as possible.
o short
commit <sha1>
Author: <author>
<title line>
o medium
commit <sha1>
Author: <author>
Date: <author date>
<title line>
<full commit message>
o full
commit <sha1>
Author: <author>
Commit: <committer>
<title line>
<full commit message>
o fuller
commit <sha1>
Author: <author>
AuthorDate: <author date>
Commit: <committer>
CommitDate: <committer date>
<title line>
<full commit message>
o email
From <sha1> <date>
From: <author>
Date: <author date>
Subject: [PATCH] <title line>
<full commit message>
o raw
The raw format shows the entire commit exactly as stored in the
commit object. Notably, the SHA-1s are displayed in full,
regardless of whether --abbrev or --no-abbrev are used, and parents
information show the true parent commits, without taking grafts nor
history simplification into account.
o format:<string>
The format:<string> format allows you to specify which information
you want to show. It works a little bit like printf format, with
the notable exception that you get a newline with %n instead of \n.
E.g, format:"The author of %h was %an, %ar%nThe title was >>%s<<%n"
would show something like this:
The author of fe6e0ee was Junio C Hamano, 23 hours ago
The title was >>t4119: test autocomputing -p<n> for traditional diff input.<<
The placeholders are:
o %H: commit hash
o %h: abbreviated commit hash
o %T: tree hash
o %t: abbreviated tree hash
o %P: parent hashes
o %p: abbreviated parent hashes
o %an: author name
o %aN: author name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or
git-blame(1))
o %ae: author email
o %aE: author email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or
git-blame(1))
o %ad: author date (format respects --date= option)
o %aD: author date, RFC2822 style
o %ar: author date, relative
o %at: author date, UNIX timestamp
o %ai: author date, ISO 8601 format
o %cn: committer name
o %cN: committer name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1)
or git-blame(1))
o %ce: committer email
o %cE: committer email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1)
or git-blame(1))
o %cd: committer date
o %cD: committer date, RFC2822 style
o %cr: committer date, relative
o %ct: committer date, UNIX timestamp
o %ci: committer date, ISO 8601 format
o %d: ref names, like the --decorate option of git-log(1)
o %e: encoding
o %s: subject
o %f: sanitized subject line, suitable for a filename
o %b: body
o %B: raw body (unwrapped subject and body)
o %N: commit notes
o %GG: raw verification message from GPG for a signed commit
o %G?: show "G" for a Good signature, "B" for a Bad signature,
"U" for a good, untrusted signature and "N" for no signature
o %GS: show the name of the signer for a signed commit
o %GK: show the key used to sign a signed commit
o %gD: reflog selector, e.g., refs/stash@{1}
o %gd: shortened reflog selector, e.g., stash@{1}
o %gn: reflog identity name
o %gN: reflog identity name (respecting .mailmap, see git-
shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
o %ge: reflog identity email
o %gE: reflog identity email (respecting .mailmap, see git-
shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
o %gs: reflog subject
o %Cred: switch color to red
o %Cgreen: switch color to green
o %Cblue: switch color to blue
o %Creset: reset color
o %C(...): color specification, as described in color.branch.*
config option; adding auto, at the beginning will emit color
only when colors are enabled for log output (by color.diff,
color.ui, or --color, and respecting the auto settings of the
former if we are going to a terminal). auto alone (i.e.
%C(auto)) will turn on auto coloring on the next placeholders
until the color is switched again.
o %m: left, right or boundary mark
o %n: newline
o %%: a raw %
o %x00: print a byte from a hex code
o %w([<w>[,<i1>[,<i2>]]]): switch line wrapping, like the -w
option of git-shortlog(1).
o %<(<N>[,trunc|ltrunc|mtrunc]): make the next placeholder take
at least N columns, padding spaces on the right if necessary.
Optionally truncate at the beginning (ltrunc), the middle
(mtrunc) or the end (trunc) if the output is longer than N
columns. Note that truncating only works correctly with N >= 2.
o %<|(<N>): make the next placeholder take at least until Nth
columns, padding spaces on the right if necessary
o %>(<N>), %>|(<N>): similar to %<(<N>), %<|(<N>) respectively,
but padding spaces on the left
o %>>(<N>), %>>|(<N>): similar to %>(<N>), %>|(<N>) respectively,
except that if the next placeholder takes more spaces than
given and there are spaces on its left, use those spaces
o %><(<N>), %><|(<N>): similar to % <(<N>), %<|(<N>)
respectively, but padding both sides (i.e. the text is
centered)
Note
Some placeholders may depend on other options given to the revision
traversal engine. For example, the %g* reflog options will insert
an empty string unless we are traversing reflog entries (e.g., by
git log -g). The %d placeholder will use the "short" decoration
format if --decorate was not already provided on the command line.
If you add a + (plus sign) after % of a placeholder, a line-feed is
inserted immediately before the expansion if and only if the
placeholder expands to a non-empty string.
If you add a - (minus sign) after % of a placeholder, line-feeds that
immediately precede the expansion are deleted if and only if the
placeholder expands to an empty string.
If you add a ` ` (space) after % of a placeholder, a space is inserted
immediately before the expansion if and only if the placeholder expands
to a non-empty string.
o tformat:
The tformat: format works exactly like format:, except that it
provides "terminator" semantics instead of "separator" semantics.
In other words, each commit has the message terminator character
(usually a newline) appended, rather than a separator placed
between entries. This means that the final entry of a single-line
format will be properly terminated with a new line, just as the
"oneline" format does. For example:
$ git log -2 --pretty=format:%h 4da45bef \
| perl -pe '$_ .= " -- NO NEWLINE\n" unless /\n/'
4da45be
7134973 -- NO NEWLINE
$ git log -2 --pretty=tformat:%h 4da45bef \
| perl -pe '$_ .= " -- NO NEWLINE\n" unless /\n/'
4da45be
7134973
In addition, any unrecognized string that has a % in it is
interpreted as if it has tformat: in front of it. For example,
these two are equivalent:
$ git log -2 --pretty=tformat:%h 4da45bef
$ git log -2 --pretty=%h 4da45bef
EXAMPLES
git whatchanged -p v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi
Show as patches the commits since version v2.6.12 that changed any
file in the include/scsi or drivers/scsi subdirectories
git whatchanged --since="2 weeks ago" -- gitk
Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file gitk. The
"--" is necessary to avoid confusion with the branch named gitk
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 1.8.3.1 07/30/2024 GIT-WHATCHANGED(1)