Re: Getting the "message" given a branch designation and conversely

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Aug 15, 2016, 12:28 UTC
Message-ID: <20160815122820.msajaamgmlexe2jd@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <201608141458.u7EEwF8P099500@shell1.rawbw.com>

On Sun, Aug 14, 2016 at 07:58:14AM -0700, norm@dad.org wrote:

> I am learning how to use git. I would like to know how:
> 
> Given a branch's designation, such as "master~4", how can I see the message I
> furnished when I created the branch using "git commit"?

Somebody already pointed you at "git log", which is the right tool for looking at commit messages (or perhaps "git show" if you only want to see a single entry).

> Conversely, given the message I furnished to "git commit", when I created a
> branch, how can I see the branch's designation?

Try "git log --grep=some.regex" to find a particular commit. Usually we refer to commits by their sha1 id, which will be shown by git-log. However, you can use git-describe to generate a name for any commit that is based on traversing from a tag. Try:

  git describe --contains --all <sha1>

for example. Using "--all" tells git to consider names based on branches as well as tags. Using "--contains" will generate a name based on traversing backwards from the tags and branches (like "master~4") rather than basing the name on a tag that you build off of.

-Peff