# How to show "bisect" refs in "git log"?

2 messages from 2025-06-26 to 2025-06-26. Participants: Brendan McDonnell, Jeff King.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/63701

## Brendan McDonnell, 2025-06-26 17:58

Subject: How to show "bisect" refs in "git log"?
Message-ID: <CA+MGQRBjx2XfhFo6Bs+X_WzRq9kB-ucZtTuw_kAfuZCVKGVvsw@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BMGQRBjx2XfhFo6Bs%2BX_WzRq9kB-ucZtTuw_kAfuZCVKGVvsw%40mail.gmail.com

```
I use this command
  git log --all --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit
frequently to visualize a repo's commit history.

It used to include "bisect" references in the output, until ~a couple
years ago IIRC. Is there a way I can modify this command so that it
includes them again, without excluding any references that it already
includes? (Appending "--decorate-refs=refs/*" includes the bisect
refs, but excludes some others that are there without it.)

Is this behavior change a bug, or intentional?
 - If intentional, why? And is it documented anywhere?
 - If it's a bug, should I report it somewhere (else)?

Thanks,

Brendan

```

## Jeff King, 2025-06-26 18:38

Subject: Re: How to show "bisect" refs in "git log"?
Message-ID: <20250626183833.GA17172@coredump.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20250626183833.GA17172%40coredump.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <CA+MGQRBjx2XfhFo6Bs+X_WzRq9kB-ucZtTuw_kAfuZCVKGVvsw@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Thu, Jun 26, 2025 at 01:58:11PM -0400, Brendan McDonnell wrote:

> I use this command
>   git log --all --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit
> frequently to visualize a repo's commit history.
> 
> It used to include "bisect" references in the output, until ~a couple
> years ago IIRC. Is there a way I can modify this command so that it
> includes them again, without excluding any references that it already
> includes? (Appending "--decorate-refs=refs/*" includes the bisect
> refs, but excludes some others that are there without it.)
> 
> Is this behavior change a bug, or intentional?
>  - If intentional, why? And is it documented anywhere?
>  - If it's a bug, should I report it somewhere (else)?

This is due to 92156291ca (log: add default decoration filter,
2022-08-05). That commit doesn't mention bisect refs, but there's some
discussion in this sub-thread:

  https://lore.kernel.org/git/kl6lr10l8t7y.fsf@chooglen-macbookpro.roam.corp.google.com/

There are some possible directions there for adding them to the default
set in a cleaner way. In the meantime, doing:

  git config log.initialDecorationSet all

will restore the old behavior.

-Peff

```