threads / discuss / 35683

Date format in 'git log' should be in local timezone

Subject: Date format in 'git log' should be in local timezone

## tl;dr

2 messages between Jan 18, 2014 and Jan 18, 2014.

replies: 1people: 2as markdown or json

Yuri· Jan 18, 2014, 00:11 UTC · lore

Currently git log mixes timezones in the date records in the same log, 
so the following dates wold appear in one log:
Date:   Thu Jan 16 17:11:28 2014 -0800
Date:   Thu Jan 16 20:10:04 2014 -0500

Timezone here doesn't help the log reader at all. It doesn't even reflect the actual location of the submitter. Instead, it should be converted to the local TZ of the client. This will make it easier to read and understand the time.

Even further, timezone shouldn't even be stored by the git server. It should just store the UTC time, following the approach how time is managed in most UNIX-like systems.

Yuri

Jonathan Nieder· Jan 18, 2014, 00:28 UTC · re: Yuri · lore

Re: Date format in 'git log' should be in local timezone

Hi,

Yuri wrote:

> Timezone here doesn't help the log reader at all. It doesn't even
> reflect the actual location of the submitter. Instead, it should be
> converted to the local TZ of the client. This will make it easier to
> read and understand the time.

Does "git log --date=local" or "git log --date=relative" do what you're looking for?

If so, you can set that permanently by setting 'date = local' or 'date = relative' in the [log] section of your ~/.gitconfig. See log.date in the git-config(1) manpage for details.

I wonder if 'date = relative' would make a better default.

> Even further, timezone shouldn't even be stored by the git server.

I've found it very useful and would consider that a regression, at least.

Thanks and hope that helps, Jonathan