# Question: regarding understanding code base 9 messages from 2025-06-14 to 2025-06-16. Participants: JAYATHEERTH K, Junio C Hamano, Ben Knoble. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/63645 ## JAYATHEERTH K, 2025-06-14 12:43 Subject: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BrGoLf8Lf0gbPEUjTU9Zc9KQrzui4pjyvfxhA-LT4YuafqeOQ%40mail.gmail.com ``` Ok so a couple of weeks ago, in this thread[1] Junio advised that one of the best ways to understand git is to go back to the _inital commit_ and travel back to the latest ones. And I happened to quite like this idea, cause I still have to dig up a lot of things in git. The main question is What are the best and smallest set of git commands to do this as I can set this up as an alias and use this trick for many other projects too. 1 - https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqfrh3qe2w.fsf@gitster.g/ Thank you, - Jayatheerth ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2025-06-14 15:43 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqq8qlu72hz.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` JAYATHEERTH K writes: > The main question is > What are the best and smallest set of git commands to do this as > I can set this up as an alias and use this trick for many other projects too. Sorry, but I have no idea what you are trying to refer to as "this" in "commands to do this" and also "this" in "use this trick", so I cannot help you here. ``` ## JAYATHEERTH K, 2025-06-15 00:24 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BrGoLehMUWPMBrZ1hOk-GBQBCvSY0_ivFCn1w1C-V_bGTDgZg%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Sat, Jun 14, 2025 at 9:13 PM Junio C Hamano wrote: > > JAYATHEERTH K writes: > > > The main question is > > What are the best and smallest set of git commands to do this as > > I can set this up as an alias and use this trick for many other projects too. > > Sorry, but I have no idea what you are trying to refer to as "this" > in "commands to do this" and also "this" in "use this trick", so I > cannot help you here. > > What I meant was: You previously suggested that one good way to understand Git is to start from the initial commit of the Git repo and move forward chronologically through the commits. I'd like to turn this approach into a repeatable workflow, possibly through an alias or small script. So my question is: What is the smallest and most effective set of Git commands to: - Start from the initial commit of a repository - Walk forward through history (one commit at a time) probably which changes my file system (I currently use a terminal based command) I use git rev-list --reverse HEAD | while read commit; do echo "=== Commit: $commit ===" git show --color --stat --patch --pretty=fuller "$commit" read -p "Press enter to continue to the next commit..." done I wanted to know if there are any better ways Thanks again, - Jayatheerth ``` ## Ben Knoble, 2025-06-15 00:26 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/AF617F39-7B22-44A3-BF08-D21CCFBEBD20%40gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` > Le 14 juin 2025 à 08:44, JAYATHEERTH K a écrit : > > Ok so a couple of weeks ago, in this thread[1] > Junio advised that one of the best ways to understand git is to go back to the > _inital commit_ and travel back to the latest ones. > > And I happened to quite like this idea, cause I still have to dig up a > lot of things in git. > The main question is > What are the best and smallest set of git commands to do this as > I can set this up as an alias and use this trick for many other projects too. If you want a checkout of the root commit, assuming there’s only one, something like git rev-list | sed -n \$p | xargs git switch --detach ought to work. You could feed something similar to git-worktree. But it’s a little harder to “go forward” with Git’s data model, and I didn’t totally understand “travel back to the latest ones.” > > 1 - https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqfrh3qe2w.fsf@gitster.g/ > > > Thank you, > > - Jayatheerth > ``` ## JAYATHEERTH K, 2025-06-15 00:37 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BrGoLcKfWYYSc-ORC9pCsUzsqketFdfVruwTC0Q06%2BBN5Gb7w%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Sun, Jun 15, 2025 at 5:56 AM Ben Knoble wrote: > > > > Le 14 juin 2025 à 08:44, JAYATHEERTH K a écrit : > > > > Ok so a couple of weeks ago, in this thread[1] > > Junio advised that one of the best ways to understand git is to go back to the > > _inital commit_ and travel back to the latest ones. > > > > And I happened to quite like this idea, cause I still have to dig up a > > lot of things in git. > > The main question is > > What are the best and smallest set of git commands to do this as > > I can set this up as an alias and use this trick for many other projects too. > > If you want a checkout of the root commit, assuming there’s only one, something like > > git rev-list | sed -n \$p | xargs git switch --detach > > ought to work. You could feed something similar to git-worktree. But it’s a little harder to “go forward” with Git’s data model, and I didn’t totally understand “travel back to the latest ones.” > By _travel back to the latest ones_ I think I should have said travel _forward to the latest ones_ But I meant to incrementally get to the _latest commit_ from the _initial commit_ ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2025-06-15 00:43 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqldpt6dht.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` JAYATHEERTH K writes: > What I meant was: > You previously suggested that one good way to understand Git is to > start from the initial commit of the Git repo and move forward > chronologically through the commits. Not at all. I only suggested to study the initial one. It is more like biology students learning the common principles that apply to all kinds of life by studying a lot simpler organism as a model, instead of studying a lot higher order ones like mammals. Moving forward is all your invention or hallucination ;-) > - Start from the initial commit of a repository > > - Walk forward through history (one commit at a time) probably which > changes my file system (I currently use a terminal based command) > > I use > git rev-list --reverse HEAD | while read commit; do > echo "=== Commit: $commit ===" > git show --color --stat --patch --pretty=fuller "$commit" > read -p "Press enter to continue to the next commit..." > done > > I wanted to know if there are any better ways Like "git log --reverse -p"? ``` ## JAYATHEERTH K, 2025-06-15 00:48 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BrGoLcsuhhSOVJoK2vEV3m7PgH%2B8hpfpdih2furnyim%3D0gP%2BA%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Sun, Jun 15, 2025 at 6:13 AM Junio C Hamano wrote: > > JAYATHEERTH K writes: > > > What I meant was: > > You previously suggested that one good way to understand Git is to > > start from the initial commit of the Git repo and move forward > > chronologically through the commits. > > Not at all. I only suggested to study the initial one. It is more > like biology students learning the common principles that apply to > all kinds of life by studying a lot simpler organism as a model, > instead of studying a lot higher order ones like mammals. > > Moving forward is all your invention or hallucination ;-) > Fair enough I have read your biology metaphor into a full evolutionary theory. ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2025-06-16 00:40 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqy0ts4izb.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` JAYATHEERTH K writes: > On Sun, Jun 15, 2025 at 6:13 AM Junio C Hamano wrote: >> >> JAYATHEERTH K writes: >> >> > What I meant was: >> > You previously suggested that one good way to understand Git is to >> > start from the initial commit of the Git repo and move forward >> > chronologically through the commits. >> >> Not at all. I only suggested to study the initial one. It is more >> like biology students learning the common principles that apply to >> all kinds of life by studying a lot simpler organism as a model, >> instead of studying a lot higher order ones like mammals. >> >> Moving forward is all your invention or hallucination ;-) >> > Fair enough I have read your biology metaphor > into a full evolutionary theory. I should probably have said "before" instead of "instead of" in the above. You were looking for a way to see what higher order organisms there are to study, after learning from the simplest organism. "git log --reverse -p" is a simpler replacement for your shell script loop to do so. If I were doing this, after studying the initial one, I would probably see how much of what I learned from the initial version remains in 1.0.0, 1.3.0, 1.5.3, and 1.6.0. 1.5.3 was probably the last version one can read cover to cover in one sitting. Anything after that version are just too big, I think, but there probably are those with more patience than I have ;-). ``` ## JAYATHEERTH K, 2025-06-16 09:44 Subject: Re: Question: regarding understanding code base Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BrGoLeG%3D-PK6QiMKL6YuUYAarnd0rM_iGD%3DvAUReKYZ9ex9AA%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Mon, Jun 16, 2025 at 6:10 AM Junio C Hamano wrote: > > JAYATHEERTH K writes: > > > On Sun, Jun 15, 2025 at 6:13 AM Junio C Hamano wrote: > >> > >> JAYATHEERTH K writes: > >> > >> > What I meant was: > >> > You previously suggested that one good way to understand Git is to > >> > start from the initial commit of the Git repo and move forward > >> > chronologically through the commits. > >> > >> Not at all. I only suggested to study the initial one. It is more > >> like biology students learning the common principles that apply to > >> all kinds of life by studying a lot simpler organism as a model, > >> instead of studying a lot higher order ones like mammals. > >> > >> Moving forward is all your invention or hallucination ;-) > >> > > Fair enough I have read your biology metaphor > > into a full evolutionary theory. > > I should probably have said "before" instead of "instead of" in the > above. You were looking for a way to see what higher order > organisms there are to study, after learning from the simplest > organism. > > "git log --reverse -p" is a simpler replacement for your shell > script loop to do so. > > If I were doing this, after studying the initial one, I would > probably see how much of what I learned from the initial version > remains in 1.0.0, 1.3.0, 1.5.3, and 1.6.0. > > 1.5.3 was probably the last version one can read cover to cover in > one sitting. Anything after that version are just too big, I think, > but there probably are those with more patience than I have ;-). Agreed, it takes time to sincerely understand each function Till now how I've done is Whenever there was a bug report I acted like the compiler, tracing the file and function with pen and paper and found the quirk While this would work for bug fixes, I'm not sure if this is a good practice for big projects or a good practice in general. ```