Git Log Displays Nothing

Question

I have a number of git repositories (with commits) and each displays nothing when running git log. If I run the command outside a project directory (without a git repository) I get:

fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

I tried re-installing Git (I'm now running 1.7.5.4) and re-cloning my repositories to no avail. Any ideas?

What does `git rev-list --all --pretty` return? – Abe Voelker Jul 12 '11 at 23:30 — Abe Voelker, Jul 12 '11 at 23:30
@Abe It returns stuff (author, date, message, etc). – Kevin Sylvestre Jul 13 '11 at 00:41 — Kevin Sylvestre, Jul 13 '11 at 00:41

score 16 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 07 '18 at 14:45

16

git log does not show any commit!

I noticed that not only git log command but also man command does not show anything for me. It turned out that I just needed to set the PAGER environment variable to less or more programs to solve both problems.

export PAGER=less

edited Jun 07 '18 at 14:45

Eric Aya

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answered Jun 07 '18 at 14:39

Farhad Maleki

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score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 01 '16 at 23:02

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I've just experienced the same problem, of git log not displaying anything for a particular file. The problem turned out to be Windows was displaying the directory name with an upper-case first letter, but git expected the first letter to be lower-case. So "git log Subdir/file.c" produced no errors and no output. Whereas "git log subdir/file.c" produced the expected revision history.

answered Aug 01 '16 at 23:02

BrentNZ

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I am observing now slightly the same: under Windows, `git log` for some particular file gives an empty output, but `git diff` to the same file works fine. Other files in the same directory seem not affected. I tried different command line options to git, but the output is still empty. – dmi Feb 15 '17 at 12:10
I got a solution to my issue. The problem appeared when I tried to say `git blame` to my file and it complained. Then I checked with `git branch --all` that my HEAD points to branch `main`, but I am in the branch `master`, and `master` differs from `main`. No much clue what happend, but I deleted branch `main` and moved `master` to `main`. After that manipulation everything works again for me :) – dmi Feb 15 '17 at 13:58

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 26 '19 at 10:03

May be that the pager is not set up correctly with git.

Diagnostics:

git config core.pager

If it gives empty output or something unexpected, it may be the cause of the problem.

Solution

Try one of the following with xxx = more, less or other pager of choice:

git config core.pager xxx
git config --global core.pager xxx

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 11 '15 at 10:27

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I have the same problem (and "git diff" doesn't work either), I still do not know why but I workaround :

git rev-list --all --reverse

Or better (only 10 last commits with message information) :

git rev-list --all --max-count=10 --reverse --pretty

answered Jun 11 '15 at 10:27

Laurent Perroteau

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This gives the list of commits, not the commits for a specific file. – scharette Jun 22 '15 at 13:59
I have the same problem: git log and git diff not working did you ever manage to resolve this? – Bazman Aug 24 '19 at 17:39
Sorry, it was 3 years ago, I was working on Windows (now on Linux it's fine) – Laurent Perroteau Aug 27 '19 at 12:01

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 20 '20 at 13:46

i had the similar issue with a log to a file. 1] get a list of your config files git config --list 2] check this entry core.filemode=false change it to true git config core.filemode true 3] check your files path in gitk 4] i had the wrong path. now it works. git log -- ./Documents/holdMe.txt

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 06 '20 at 17:37

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For those who still don't come up with solution: Check your firewall, mine (Comodo on windows10) was blocking Git\usr\bin\less.exe.

After removing it from blocked apps it worked fine.

answered Mar 06 '20 at 17:37

beatrice

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 12 '11 at 23:29

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The fatal error for running a git command outside a project directory is expected. Not getting any log messages at all for running git log is not.

Try running gitk to see if you can see the log history there.

answered Jul 12 '11 at 23:29

citizen conn

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gitk won't show anything either. If you want to use gitk, call it with the --all parameter as you would with git log. – Adam Dymitruk Jul 12 '11 at 23:30
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probably not worth a downvote since it is a troubleshooting technique but whatevs – citizen conn Jul 12 '11 at 23:32

Adam Dymitruk · Answer 8 · 2011-07-12T23:54:30.747

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If you do not have any commits, it would not show anything and error. Also, if you don't have a current commit in a bare repo, you can still show all commits in a repo with `git log --all'.

You can also see what branches you have with

git branch -a

then you can git checkout branchX. You would be able to get output from git log then - provided you have some commits there. If you have bare repos, you can't checkout.

Hope this helps.

edited Jul 12 '11 at 23:54

answered Jul 12 '11 at 23:29

Adam Dymitruk

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He says he has many repos, none of them have have any commit? No chance. And what do you mean by `if you don't have a current commit` ? If you are talking about detached head, it still shows a log as commits are still pointing to their parents. – manojlds Jul 12 '11 at 23:33

Git Log Displays Nothing

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