仅查看某些分支的git log（带合并）

Question

I know how to view the logs only for specific branches with --first-parent , like this:

git log --oneline --graph --first-parent origin/master origin/topic1

The problem with this is that I don't see the merge relationships between only those branches specified (which is what I want). If I do this:

git log --oneline --graph origin/master origin/topic1

It will show all branches anyway, even though I've specified I only want to see two of them.

What I want is to be able to specify specific branches to view the logs of and see the merges between only those branches. The reason why I need this is because there are tons of other long-lived branches that cause the graph to get huge and I have to scroll several pages to find branch relationships. I need a way to filter them out.

Is this possible?

EDIT

Here are my actual aliases:

short-log-base = log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --date=relative --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset)%x09%C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset) %C(dim white)%an%C(reset) - %C(white)%s%C(reset)'
lgs = !git short-log-base --first-parent

I do the following:

git lgs topic1 master

I realize passing in two branches will show the commits between those two, what I really want it to do is show me just those two branches plus any relationships between them. All other ancestors should be ignored and not shown.

When I run the command above, I am not seeing the graph draw lines between commits in those two branches where merge commits have occurred.

Here is just a small sample of my nightmare log graph (a snippet from the middle of it):

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 431ce45     (5 months ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 14a0211     (6 months ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 0afde13     (8 months ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 88872ab     (3 weeks ago)
| |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|/
|/| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | f8f9efd       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | a65759b       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 6814d25       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ca242b7       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | d29f84c       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3e91342       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 5b23641       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0e5e598       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | f40e924       (3 weeks ago)
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3614c05       (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * b0b8f66     (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 5b9a183     (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 591af91     (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * a1e6896     (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 9e12dc7     (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * e7d4203     (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 5286952     (3 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * a4e52b6     (4 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * d1da806     (4 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 76b2174     (4 weeks ago)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * 48b0687     (4 weeks ago)

I simply have NO idea why so many branches are being shown when as far as I'm concerned, I only want to see the graph between two branches. If getting this to work means limiting the length of the history, then by all means please let me know how I can do that.

Answer 1

You're not seeing "extra" branches

The only reason why you're seeing additional branches is because those branches are ancestors of the branches that you specified on the command line. To demonstrate, this is what my log looks like:

$ git log --oneline --graph --decorate master temp -14
* 458e836 (HEAD, master) Add narf.txt   <===== Here is master
*   03bbab7 Merge branch 'bar'
|\
| * a765ecc (bar) Add quack.txt         <===== Here is bar
| * 80efc7c Add moo.txt
* | b1bc4f1 Add junk
|/
| * acb480b (temp) Add stuff after merge commit <===== Here is temp
| *   1e4b626 Merge branch 'foo' into temp
| |\
| | * 06c40a1 (foo) Add even more junk          <===== Here is foo
| | * ea3ea46 Add foo.txt
| |/
| * e918c72 Add derp.txt
| * f1a74d8 Add lol.txt
| * c244486 Add foo.txt
|/
* 7c61796 Fix OS X Bash `workdir` alias for new terminal tabs

Notice that even though I only specified master and temp on the command line, bar and foo are also shown, because they're ancestors of the other branches, and thus part of their history.

You probably don't want to use --no-merges for this...

Additionally, I don't recommend that you use --no-merges to try to visualize your branches, because you can sometimes unintentionally leave out important information about when a merge between branches occurs with that flag. To demonstrate, this is what happens to my graph shown above when I use --no-merges :

$ git log --oneline --graph --decorate --no-merges master temp -11
* 458e836 (HEAD, master) Add narf.txt  <===== Here is master
* a765ecc (bar) Add quack.txt          <===== Here is bar
* 80efc7c Add moo.txt
| * b1bc4f1 Add junk                   <===== Which branch does this belong to?
|/
| * acb480b (temp) Add stuff after merge commit  <===== Here is temp
| * 06c40a1 (foo) Add even more junk             <===== Here is foo
| * ea3ea46 Add foo.txt
| * e918c72 Add derp.txt
| * f1a74d8 Add lol.txt
| * c244486 Add foo.txt
|/
* 7c61796 Fix OS X Bash `workdir` alias for new terminal tabs

Notice that you now can't tell that the commit b1bc4f1 Add junk is an ancestor of 458e836 Add narf.txt . It looks as if b1bc4f1 Add junk isn't a part of master , when in fact it is.

Prefer --first-parent instead

If you want to simplify your branch history visualization, I recommend that you use the --first-parent flag instead:

git log --oneline --graph --decorate --first-parent origin/master origin/topic1

This is what my graph log looks like using that instead of --no-merges :

$ git log --oneline --graph --decorate --first-parent master temp -9
* 458e836 (HEAD, master) Add narf.txt  <===== Here is master
* 03bbab7 Merge branch 'bar'
* b1bc4f1 Add junk
| * acb480b (temp) Add stuff after merge commit  <===== Here is temp
| * 1e4b626 Merge branch 'foo' into temp
| * e918c72 Add derp.txt
| * f1a74d8 Add lol.txt
| * c244486 Add foo.txt
|/
* 7c61796 Fix OS X Bash `workdir` alias for new terminal tabs

This actually accurately represents the final history of all the branches, while also simplifying the graph by hiding the intermediate commits.

Answer 2

Try git show-branch <list of branches> .

This will just show those branches as far back as their merge point. It's mentioned in the "Everyday GIT With 20 Commands Or So" guide.

The example in the man page shows three branches: the first lines up to the '---' are the branches, showing which column they will be marked on; then the relevant commits in the order you gave in the options with a mark as to which branch that commit is contained in.