How to show branch history?

Question

I am very new to git, I want to know how to track branch history?

For instance:

echo "update README in branch master" >> README.md git commit -a -m"commit in branch master" git checkout -b b1 echo "update README in branch b1" >> README.md git commit -a -m"commit in branch b1" git checkout master git merge b1 git push 

then someone clones this repo, how to show the history of the branches?

 git log --graph * commit 4162ecc962aa020ec6294312e4f8eed63ca152d1 | Author: test1 < [e-mail] > | Date: Fri Feb 15 14:37:43 2013 +0900 | | commit in branch b1 | * commit 08e80fc644fa7ebb374a601e16533a8fc3578f88 | Author: test1 < [e-mail] > | Date: Fri Feb 15 14:37:04 2013 +0900 | | commit in branch master | * commit 9d9649cdb409654616798d8feeb516738997e2e0 Author: test1 < [e-mail] > Date: Thu Feb 14 21:33:46 2013 -0800 Initial commit 

I also see some such log:

 * commit 2f49d77afe0708037eab1de3d216484d01f1c190 | Author: ericz < [e-mail] > | Date: Wed Feb 13 11:45:49 2013 -0800 | | readme update | * commit 996214b87cce3473297ed0997ca567497271e05a |\ Merge: a239b70 5269cd4 | | Author: ericz < [e-mail] > | | Date: Wed Feb 13 11:45:23 2013 -0800 | | | | Merge branch 'master' of github.com:peers/peerjs | | | * commit 5269cd455f1522e88ab5a15228effe11665e6a89 | | Author: Eric Zhang < [e-mail] > | | Date: Wed Feb 13 09:47:05 2013 -0800 | | | | Update README.md | | * | commit a239b706f294c469a5c6542ce7e6f5e60417445a | | Author: ericz < [e-mail] > | | Date: Wed Feb 13 11:45:09 2013 -0800 | | | | new exmales | | * | commit 0ce560d093637b3a17c7b5f1ab1de3f9c00bb888 |/ Author: ericz < [e-mail] > | Date: Wed Feb 13 11:02:33 2013 -0800 | | simple chat example 

How does this happen?

and how to draw a graph as follows:

  D---E-------F / \ \ B---C---G---H---I---J / \ A-------K---------------L--M 

Answer 1

You are on the right track. Try using:

 git log --graph --all --oneline 

Here is an example:

 * e96e246 H | * c12759a G |/ * 547058e F |\ | * b81eb87 E * | 26a34db D | | * 47a536f C | | * b8fa965 B | |/ |/| * | cd14ec4 A 

I personally use alais in .gitconfig,

 [alias] graph = log --graph --all --date=short --pretty=format':%C(yellow)%h%Cblue%d%Creset %s %Cgreen %aN, %ad%Creset' 

Which gives a similar result, but with a bit more awesomeness (branches, dates, authors):

 * e96e246 (HEAD, master, origin/master) H. Developer A, 2012-12-13 | * c12759a (branch_2) G. Developer B, 2012-12-13 |/ * 547058e F. Developer C, 2012-12-11 |\ | * b81eb87 E. Developer A, 2012-11-28 * | 26a34db D. Developer C, 2012-12-11 | | * 47a536f (branch_1) C. Developer B, 2012-10-10 | | * b8fa965 B. Developer B, 2012-10-11 | |/ |/| * | cd14ec4 A. Developer B, 2012-10-10 

If you have the option of using a GUI with git, gitk is usually recommended for this kind of thing. Here's the intro .