log first 10 in git

Question

Two questions:

How to show the first 10 commit in git from beginning to end. (no branch)
How the specify the commit index and log it. (show the second or third)

I know that git use parent to link the commit, it's easy to log the commit from end to start. like: git log HEAD~10

But i need to query from the start to end, is it possible?

Related: [How to show first commit by 'git log'?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5188914/how-to-show-first-commit-by-git-log) — CharlesB, Apr 27 '12 at 06:43

score 339 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 15 '15 at 09:52

339

git log -10

Would show 10 latest commits matching the revision spec (a missing spec means "all commits").

See manpage:

git help log

section Commit Limiting

-<number>, -n <number>, --max-count=<number>
    Limit the number of commits to output.

edited Apr 15 '15 at 09:52

Hotschke

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answered Apr 27 '12 at 08:27

kostix

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simple, and doesn't depend on `tail` being available on your platform. – tenpn Oct 05 '12 at 10:06
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& doesn't mess with git formatting/coloring. This should be the accepted answer x100 – kuzyn Jul 01 '16 at 21:19
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Not what the op wanted: he wanted the `first` 10, not the `latest`. – Timo Nov 07 '17 at 08:05
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@Timo, quite possibly yes, but the question as stated is open for interpretation, and a lot of peple seem to end up upvoting my answer just because of these open differences. So while I technically agree with you, let's keep it as is, I suppose ;-) Among the technically correct suggestions, I like the most the torek's comment to the accepted answer. – kostix Nov 07 '17 at 08:13
@kostix "How to show the first 10 commit in git from beginning to end" isn't "open to interpretation" as far as I'm concerned. It's obviously asking for the *first* 10 commits, not the *latest*. – Bobby Jack Mar 03 '19 at 12:15
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@BobbyJack, the number of upvotes disproves your point. I mean, I tried to explain that this is a social issue. You did not get it. Fine, let's get over it. – kostix Mar 04 '19 at 11:27
@kostix I accept that many people have interpreted the question incorrectly — only the OP can explain what they actually meant, of course! However, I think it's very clear when they say " it's easy to log the commit from end to start — git log HEAD~10 — but i need to query from the start to end" that they want the oldest 10 commits, not the newest. – Bobby Jack Mar 05 '19 at 09:04

score 73 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 27 '12 at 07:04

73

Simply log everything with one line format and tail the output:

git log  --pretty=oneline | tail -n 10

answered Apr 27 '12 at 07:04

CharlesB

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Great! That's what am looking for. Tks @CharlesB. – yohan zhou Apr 27 '12 at 07:08
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Or, use `git rev-list HEAD | tail -n 10` to get the 10 IDs to list, which you can then show in whatever format you like (not limited to the one-line method). – torek Apr 27 '12 at 07:09
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`tail` seems to lose the nice coloring that I get in my git console. Passing a parameter like `git log --oneline -10` as in the other answer works as I expected. – James Hulse Dec 03 '15 at 11:34
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This is clearly the hard-core Unix way, lol. Please see @kostix answer. – 9301293 Oct 24 '17 at 19:55
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The downside of this method is that i can only see my pushed commits. – Jack' Jan 09 '19 at 14:43
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`git log --pretty=oneline -10` will show with colors – Marcelo Vani Nov 26 '20 at 22:34
git log --oneline -1 – Vaisakh Rajagopal Apr 06 '23 at 11:08

score 41 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 18 '17 at 09:15

41

Here my approach,

To get first 10 commits:

git log -n 10

-n is number

Additional To get next 10 commit skip first 10 :

git log --skip=10 -n 10

answered Dec 18 '17 at 09:15

Nayagam

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I think this should be the acceppted answer. Using tail will cause --graph to stop working in git log – relief.melone Oct 23 '18 at 06:36
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This must be the accepted answer. works like a charm for me – Doogle Feb 26 '19 at 02:07
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you lose the font color on the console using tail as well. this is the right answer – CESCO Oct 17 '19 at 11:17

score 19 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 19 '19 at 02:00

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the best result comes with combination of both best answers:

git log --pretty=oneline -10

answered Mar 19 '19 at 02:00

andrej

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Thanks I use this as a [git alias](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Git/aliases) to quickly display the recent commits without filling my terminal. I called the alias `lkj = log --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit -10`. Now I realize it doesn't answer the OP's question but I came here looking for the simple number switch. – Paul Rougieux Nov 27 '19 at 16:15

torek · Answer 5 · 2017-02-14T03:13:39.177

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To get the last 10 commits:

git log HEAD~10..HEAD

To get them in oldest-to-newest order:

git log --reverse HEAD~10..HEAD

Note that if there are merges, this may show more than 10 commits; add --first-parent if you only want to traverse through the first parent of each branch.

For far more detail, see the documentation for git rev-list.

Edit: You've already gotten a useful answer above to "show commits near the start of history" (again, see the caveats about multiple non-connected commit DAGs in a repo). But you can also do, e.g.:

git log --no-walk `git rev-list HEAD | tail -n 10`

and:

git log --no-walk `git rev-list --reverse HEAD | head -n 10`

depending on which order you want the results.

edited Feb 14 '17 at 03:13

answered Apr 27 '12 at 06:14

torek

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Tks for your reply. But i don't need the last 10 commits but the first. To be specific, if the commit is A-B-C-D-E-F-G(HEAD). How to log the A-B-C and how to log C by the index 2? – yohan zhou Apr 27 '12 at 06:45
Oh! There's no guarantee that there is a single "first commit", but if there is, see the link @CharlesB added. – torek Apr 27 '12 at 06:50
The way can be work. any natural way? git log --pretty=oneline | wc -l git log HEAD~ – yohan zhou Apr 27 '12 at 07:06
Thanks for the answer. This is what I needed to avoid '-10' style options in my git aliases. that accept number arguments. – vicTROLLA Sep 17 '15 at 23:38

score 18 · Answer 6 · answered May 11 '20 at 05:07

18

i would use below simple syntax command;

git log -10 --oneline

answered May 11 '20 at 05:07

RAVI PATEL

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Think this is the most efficient way! – Nishant Jul 10 '20 at 09:02
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Hm, but this prints 10 last **not** first commits. – PovilasB Jun 07 '21 at 07:27

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 22 '12 at 09:18

5

Simply log everything reverse -1 means list one log

git log  --reverse -1

answered Nov 22 '12 at 09:18

nickleefly

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 17 '14 at 19:57

Because... more detail :p

How to show the first 10 commit in git from beginning to end. (no branch)
How the specify the commit index and log it. (show the second or third)

By (no branch), you might be asking about the reflog rather than any given ancestry chain. The following has nothing to do with the branch you are on.

git log -g --pretty=oneline | tail -10

<sha> HEAD@{###}: action: summary (old)
<sha> HEAD@{###}: action: summary (older)
...
<sha> HEAD@{###}: action: summary (oldest)

-g is --walk-reflogs Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk reflog entries.q
add |cut -d ' ' -f 2|tr -d ':' > log to log only the reflog commit index.

The following will show the earliest ancestors of the currently checked out branch.

git log --reverse --pretty=oneline | head -10 | cat -n

1 <sha> summary (oldest)
2 <sha> summary (second)

--reverse Output the commits in reverse order.
Can't use simply -n 10 or -10 since it breaks --reverse
cat -n adds line numbers (commit index?)

Noam Manos · Answer 9 · 2021-02-04T19:55:28.597

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Try this neat output format:

git log --date=short -10 --pretty="%C(Yellow)%h %x09 %C(reset)%ad %x09 %C(Cyan)%an: %C(reset)%s"

It will print short lines with colors, like:

edited Feb 04 '21 at 19:55

answered Feb 04 '21 at 16:55

Noam Manos

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 03 '19 at 05:01

In case someone wants more than just git one-line log:

git log --reverse | awk 'NR>1 {print last} {last=$0}; /^commit/ && ++c==11{exit}'

where the 11 at the end should be set to 1 more than the number of commits you want.

As here points out git log --reverse -n 10 doesn't work as you need it to. (I suppose it would need to be non-commutative to give you the ability to chose the first 10 commits in reverse order or the last 10 commits )

log first 10 in git

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