git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

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

From
Jakub Narębski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date
Aug 24, 2016, 14:39 UTC
Message-ID
<d75b165c-0b68-bd8e-31c0-cf7e704d6e61@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20160815122820.msajaamgmlexe2jd@sigill.intra.peff.net>
W dniu 15.08.2016 o 14:28, Jeff King pisze:
Show 10 quoted lines
> 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).

I think you would want "git log -1 master~4" or "git show master~4" to see the commit message of a single commit (without diff).

Show 5 quoted lines
>> 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.

There is also :/<search> and <rev>^{/<search>} syntax, if you want composability (see gitrevisions(7)).

Show 9 quoted lines
> 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.
The "git describe --contains" is interface to "git name-rev" plumbing
-- 
Jakub Narębski
Previous: Jeff King
Message 4 of 4 in “Getting the "message" given a branch designation and conversely”
  1. norm@dad.orgAug 14, 2016
  2. Philip OakleyAug 14, 2016
  3. Jeff KingAug 15, 2016
  4. Jakub NarębskiAug 24, 2016

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.