How can I get last commit from GitHub API

Question

Which is the best way to get the latest commit information from a git repository using GitHub API (Rest API v3).

Option 1: GET /repos/:owner/:repo/commits/master
Can I assume that the object 'commit' of the response is the latest commit from branch master?

Option 2: GET /repos/:owner/:repo/git/commits/5a2ff
Or make two calls, one to get the sha by getting the HEAD ref from master and then get the commit information using the sha returned.

Why wouldn't `/repos/:owner/:repo/commits/:branch` be the latest commit? — OneCricketeer, Aug 17 '17 at 03:18

score 53 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '17 at 05:33

53

It depends on your definition of "last".

for a given branch (like master), GET /repos/:owner/:repo/commits/master is indeed the last (most recent) commit.
But you can also consider the last push event: that would represent the last and most recent commit done (on any branch), pushed by a user to this repo.

answered Aug 17 '17 at 05:33

VonC

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How does one use the GET idea with the api. How is it included in the curl? – John Wooten Apr 10 '20 at 16:07
@JohnWooten See for examples https://gist.github.com/joyrexus/85bf6b02979d8a7b0308 – VonC Apr 10 '20 at 16:37
But I need to pass an owner. How do I know that that dev was the last one pushing something to the repo? – Dani Aug 17 '20 at 08:08
1

@Dani Why passing the owner of the repository a problem in your case? – VonC Aug 17 '20 at 08:26
Ah sorry, I thought it was the owner of the commit. That works then – Dani Aug 17 '20 at 09:38
`curl --user username:mypassword "https://mygithubenterprise/api/v3/repos/myorg/myproj/commits/master"` – Sridhar Sarnobat Jun 04 '21 at 22:02
1

@SridharSarnobat True, but do not use your GHE account password, use a token: https://github.blog/changelog/2020-11-13-token-authentication-required-for-api-operations/ (nov. 2020) – VonC Jun 05 '21 at 16:03

pythonNovice · Answer 2 · 2023-02-06T19:25:40.160

10

Another method to getting the latest commit from a user would be using the following endpoint. To clarify, this will only show public events so pushes to a private repository will not be shown.

https://api.github.com/users/<username>/events/public

edited Feb 06 '23 at 19:25

answered Oct 19 '21 at 18:28

pythonNovice

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Wow, you don't even have to authenticate. Thanks for sharing this! – Joe Previte Nov 24 '21 at 17:57

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 15 '21 at 10:22

8

If you only need the SHA1 of the latest commit of a certain branch here's a curl request that will do it:

curl -s -H "Authorization: token {your_github_access_token}" \
-H "Accept: application/vnd.github.VERSION.sha" \ 
"https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repository_name}/commits/{branch_name}"

answered Mar 15 '21 at 10:22

Anton

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the "Accept" header is important there to just get the SHA, see https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/repos#get-a-commit – George Birbilis Oct 05 '21 at 07:02

Bertrand Martel · Answer 4 · 2020-06-08T19:20:49.617

You can also use Github GraphQL v4 to get the last commit of the default branch :

{
  repository(name: "linux", owner: "torvalds") {
    defaultBranchRef {
      target {
        ... on Commit {
          history(first: 1) {
            nodes {
              message
              committedDate
              authoredDate
              oid
              author {
                email
                name
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Or for all branches :

{
  repository(name: "material-ui", owner: "mui-org") {
    refs(first: 100, refPrefix: "refs/heads/") {
      edges {
        node {
          name
          target {
            ... on Commit {
              history(first: 1) {
                nodes {
                  message
                  committedDate
                  authoredDate
                  oid
                  author {
                    email
                    name
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Try it in the explorer

How can I get last commit from GitHub API

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