# git command history

5 messages from 2019-03-19 to 2019-03-25. Participants: balaji marisetti, Junio C Hamano, Johannes Schindelin, Jeff Hostetler.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/50778

## balaji marisetti, 2019-03-19 16:03

Subject: git command history
Message-ID: <CAKcrOwe2ARK4J6YuiXUiVXic=q568VC8JtgWMNs6WEd4hhZs3A@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAKcrOwe2ARK4J6YuiXUiVXic%3Dq568VC8JtgWMNs6WEd4hhZs3A%40mail.gmail.com

```
Hi All,

Can anyone please tell me if there is way to see the command history
of a local git repo? If there isn't a way, why hasn't the
command-history feature been implemented?


Thanks,
Balaji M

-- 
:-)balaji

```

## Junio C Hamano, 2019-03-20 00:47

Subject: Re: git command history
Message-ID: <xmqq1s32xtg8.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqq1s32xtg8.fsf%40gitster-ct.c.googlers.com
In-Reply-To: <CAKcrOwe2ARK4J6YuiXUiVXic=q568VC8JtgWMNs6WEd4hhZs3A@mail.gmail.com>

```
balaji marisetti <balajimarisetti@gmail.com> writes:

> Can anyone please tell me if there is way to see the command history
> of a local git repo? If there isn't a way, why hasn't the
> command-history feature been implemented?

Another question may be why anybody would want to have such a per
repository command history, want Git to spend cycles and disk I/O to
store it, and want developers to spend braincycles to think about
it.

Depending on where you come from (i.e. if the interest in such a
history is coming from corporate management and/or big brother side
that wants to learn what its users are doing), I think JeffH's
trace2 effort that allows "telemetry" to be collected may be a
better match than a command history (e.g. "history | grep git").
Without knowing (not that I am all that interested in) what the
motivation of wanting such a thing, it is rather hard to guess,
though ;-).

```

## Johannes Schindelin, 2019-03-22 12:46

Subject: Re: git command history
Message-ID: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.1903221343090.41@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.1903221343090.41%40tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet
In-Reply-To: <CAKcrOwe2ARK4J6YuiXUiVXic=q568VC8JtgWMNs6WEd4hhZs3A@mail.gmail.com>

```
Hi Balaji,

On Tue, 19 Mar 2019, balaji marisetti wrote:

> Can anyone please tell me if there is way to see the command history
> of a local git repo?

If you really are only interested in the *Git* commands, you will be able
to implement something on top of the Trace2 feature (which just made it
into `master` but not into any official Git version yet, so it will most
likely be available when Git v2.22.0 comes out).

If you are instead interested in all shell commands in a local Git
worktree (you probably meant the worktree, not the repository, I assume),
then you might need to play some games with Bash aliases to override `cd`
and reroute the history by re-setting `HISTFILE` and then calling `history
-cr` or something similar.

> If there isn't a way, why hasn't the command-history feature been
> implemented?

Because Git is an open source project. This means that nobody is
responsible for fulfilling your wishes, except for you. And you can do it,
too, this project welcomes all high-quality contributions.

Ciao,
Johannes

```

## Jeff Hostetler, 2019-03-22 13:19

Subject: Re: git command history
Message-ID: <f52ef736-9d58-a6cf-e3b0-501b065ae325@jeffhostetler.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/f52ef736-9d58-a6cf-e3b0-501b065ae325%40jeffhostetler.com
In-Reply-To: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.1903221343090.41@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>

```


On 3/22/2019 8:46 AM, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> Hi Balaji,
> 
> On Tue, 19 Mar 2019, balaji marisetti wrote:
> 
>> Can anyone please tell me if there is way to see the command history
>> of a local git repo?
> 
> If you really are only interested in the *Git* commands, you will be able
> to implement something on top of the Trace2 feature (which just made it
> into `master` but not into any official Git version yet, so it will most
> likely be available when Git v2.22.0 comes out).
> 

Trace2 will let you see all of the git commands,
the alias expansions, and any shell commands launched
by git. If those shell commands also run git commands,
they will be listed too.

However, it can't tell you what was otherwise done within
the shell script.


> If you are instead interested in all shell commands in a local Git
> worktree (you probably meant the worktree, not the repository, I assume),
> then you might need to play some games with Bash aliases to override `cd`
> and reroute the history by re-setting `HISTFILE` and then calling `history
> -cr` or something similar.
> 
>> If there isn't a way, why hasn't the command-history feature been
>> implemented?
> 
> Because Git is an open source project. This means that nobody is
> responsible for fulfilling your wishes, except for you. And you can do it,
> too, this project welcomes all high-quality contributions.
> 
> Ciao,
> Johannes
> 

```

## balaji marisetti, 2019-03-25 15:40

Subject: Re: git command history
Message-ID: <CAKcrOwfz=W+HwAZUDCo9u=prH-orUph0f-H5bXZ14pcyjFTiFA@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAKcrOwfz%3DW%2BHwAZUDCo9u%3DprH-orUph0f-H5bXZ14pcyjFTiFA%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <f52ef736-9d58-a6cf-e3b0-501b065ae325@jeffhostetler.com>

```
Thanks Johannes, and Jeff for your responses

> you probably meant the worktree, not the repository, I assume
You introduced me to a new feature :) I didn't know about this
"worktree" feature. Thanks.

> Trace2 will let you see all of the git commands,
> the alias expansions, and any shell commands launched
> by git. If those shell commands also run git commands,
> they will be listed too.
Currently, I'm going through the code and documentation of this
feature. I'll see how I can leverage this feature to work for my
usecase.


- Balaji M

On Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 6:49 PM Jeff Hostetler <git@jeffhostetler.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 3/22/2019 8:46 AM, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> > Hi Balaji,
> >
> > On Tue, 19 Mar 2019, balaji marisetti wrote:
> >
> >> Can anyone please tell me if there is way to see the command history
> >> of a local git repo?
> >
> > If you really are only interested in the *Git* commands, you will be able
> > to implement something on top of the Trace2 feature (which just made it
> > into `master` but not into any official Git version yet, so it will most
> > likely be available when Git v2.22.0 comes out).
> >
>
> Trace2 will let you see all of the git commands,
> the alias expansions, and any shell commands launched
> by git. If those shell commands also run git commands,
> they will be listed too.
>
> However, it can't tell you what was otherwise done within
> the shell script.
>
>
> > If you are instead interested in all shell commands in a local Git
> > worktree (you probably meant the worktree, not the repository, I assume),
> > then you might need to play some games with Bash aliases to override `cd`
> > and reroute the history by re-setting `HISTFILE` and then calling `history
> > -cr` or something similar.
> >
> >> If there isn't a way, why hasn't the command-history feature been
> >> implemented?
> >
> > Because Git is an open source project. This means that nobody is
> > responsible for fulfilling your wishes, except for you. And you can do it,
> > too, this project welcomes all high-quality contributions.
> >
> > Ciao,
> > Johannes
> >



-- 
:-)balaji

```
