Does git have an option to show the commits to be merged before performing the merge?

Question

For example, when I merge from master -> production, I'd like to see a list of the commits before I, err, commit to them. Something like:

$ git merge --doublecheck master
Commits to merge:
1292642 fix foo
3c0f30b cleanup bar
Do you want to proceed? (y/n)

[git help rev-list](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-rev-list) – Josh Lee Sep 02 '13 at 19:37 — Josh Lee, Sep 02 '13 at 19:37

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 02 '13 at 19:31

4

You can use revision range double-dot .. syntax to do this:

git log --oneline --graph <branch-to-merge-into>..<branch-to-be-merged>

The output will be all commits in <branch-to-be-merged> that aren't in <branch-to-merge-into>.

You can learn more about this and other revision range syntaxes in the Commit Ranges section of the FREE online Pro Git book.

answered Sep 02 '13 at 19:31

1

And you can omit the left-hand-side if it’s your current branch. `git log ..master` in this case. – Josh Lee Sep 02 '13 at 19:33
and you could create a git alias to make the behaviour you want scripted – kan Sep 02 '13 at 19:38

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 02 '13 at 19:52

You can prevent Git from committing automatically with the --no-commit and --no-ff flags:

git merge master --no-commit --no-ff

If the current branch and master have diverged, then --no-commit is enough. If master is simply a couple of revisions ahead then Git will automatically fast-forward, and there isn't really a commit in this case. The --no-ff prevents this automatic fast forward.

If you do this, the changes that result from the merge will be in a pending state, not committed. I do this when doing code-reviews, as it's easy to diffs in this state. If you do this often it's practical to create an alias for it in your ~/.gitconfig, for example:

rev = merge --no-ff --no-commit

In the end, I reset and let Git do the committing, as it generates a nice commit log as the summary of all commit logs of the merged revisions.

While this shows the result of the merge, it doesn't show which commits are being merged in, which is what the original poster asked for. — , Sep 02 '13 at 20:51

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

0

Another techniques is to use the --no-commit and -no-ff option (similar to the git commit --dry-run option), so you can see the actual results. See the Examples section of the merge(1) man page.

see also SO/is-there-a-git-merge-dry-run-option and git merge without auto commit

edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

Community

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answered Sep 02 '13 at 19:54

Philip Oakley

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While this shows the result of the merge, it doesn't show which commits are being merged in, which is what the original poster asked for. – Sep 02 '13 at 20:48

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 02 '13 at 20:03

I've taken some of the suggestions here and written a little script, git-safemerge:

 $ git safemerge master
 Commits:
  * bc911ef Fix bug in widget
  * e80f8d1 Clean things up

 Changes:
  foo.py   |  12 ++--
  bar.py   |  35 +++++-----
  2 files changed, 47 insertions(+), 47 deletions(-)

 Fast-forward: not possible

 Continue merging master into prod? (y/n)

It's available at: https://gist.github.com/wolever/6416735

Does git have an option to show the commits to be merged before performing the merge?

4 Answers4