How to get birds eye view of git tree with just branch names, not individual commits?

Question

I like the ability of git to give me a visual tree showing how the commits flow on various branches, but with a lot of commits you may drown in detail.

I was wondering how I can just get the basic outline of the branch structure without all the individual commits, but with branch names put in the right locations anyway.

Much like gitk --all . but then zoomed a bit out.

Suggestions?

EDIT: 2013-03-16 - I have still not found a good solution to this. I've found however that the history view in Git Extensions for some reason gives better information than the history view in Eclipse.

A bit similar to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3666953/showing-git-branch-structure — VonC, Nov 15 '11 at 10:35
Also a bit similar to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5298972/relationship-between-n-git-branches — Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen, Feb 22 '12 at 14:50
These similar questions are all pretty old, there may be more modern tools nowadays. — , Apr 19 '12 at 00:35

score 19 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

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Using a hint from the question VonC linked in the comments, the following should suffice:

git log --oneline --decorate --all --graph --simplify-by-decoration

edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

Community

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answered Nov 15 '11 at 14:08

Go Dan

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This still gives me one line pr commit with the text. I would like a bit more zoomed out, so there just are the lines without individual commits. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jan 14 '14 at 09:24

knittl · Answer 2 · 2022-09-22T16:33:17.747

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You can use the --simplify-by-decoration option:

gitk --simplify-by-decoration --all

And if you are a CLI junkie, the same is possible in the console as well:

git log --oneline --decorate --graph --simplify-by-decoration --all

* a6b4b080e4 (origin/next) Merge branch 'jk/plug-list-object-filter-leaks' into next
| * 12f70ac9b5 (origin/seen) Merge branch 'jk/proto-v2-ref-prefix-fix' into seen
|/  
* 79f2338b37 (origin/master, origin/main, origin/HEAD) The eighteenth batch
* ac8035a2af (tag: v2.37.3, origin/maint) Git 2.37.3
* ad60dddad7 (tag: v2.37.2) Git 2.37.2
* bbea4dcf42 (tag: v2.37.1) Git 2.37.1
*   69ab3309e9 Sync with Git 2.36.2
|\  
| * fd59c5bdee (tag: v2.36.2) Git 2.36.2
| *   8f8eea8c3a Sync with 2.35.4
| |\  
| | * 359da658ae (tag: v2.35.4) Git 2.35.4
| | *   aef3d5948c Sync with 2.34.4
| | |\  
| | | * f2eed22852 (tag: v2.34.4) Git 2.34.4
| | | *   378eaded1a Sync with 2.33.4
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edited Sep 22 '22 at 16:33

answered Nov 15 '11 at 14:15

knittl

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Finally I found it here. – Amit Kumar Gupta Sep 03 '14 at 15:42
Thanks, it should be a selected answer – Ves Sep 22 '22 at 16:08
Well... I have been a "CLI junkie" [all those years](https://stackoverflow.com/a/24709317/6309) ;) – VonC Sep 22 '22 at 16:50

Noufal Ibrahim · Answer 3 · 2014-01-14T09:36:53.573

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I have a little Ruby script that uses graphviz to display a repository. It dies on really large repositories (but you can tweak it a little to not display too many intermediate commits). I use it during my git trainings and I've found it useful.

Update: I blogged about it here. There are pictures of the graphs as well as notes on how to use the scripts.

edited Jan 14 '14 at 09:36

answered Nov 15 '11 at 10:38

Noufal Ibrahim

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I don't want all the commits. Just branch names. Can it do that? – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Nov 15 '11 at 10:46
You'd have to edit it a little but yes, it can. The commits (atleast a few) are useful to show relationships between the branches. The question VonC has linked to also has a useful `--simplify-by-decoration` option to `git log` which might give you what you want. – Noufal Ibrahim Nov 15 '11 at 10:54
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I would suggest you add some sample graphs to your web page. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jan 14 '14 at 09:26

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 06 '17 at 05:36

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For those who looking for GUI alternative. I use GitUp for Branch Visualisation. The UI looks sleek and clean. Although, GitUp can be used for editing Git repo. I only use its Visualisation tool. Its free, open source, and only 9.1 MB.

Another GUI tool is Git Client like Atlassian's Source Tree, Git Kraken or Git Tower. Those Client usually have built-in Git Visualisation tool.

answered Nov 06 '17 at 05:36

aldok

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Gitup is amazing. They have a command-line tool so you can just do `gitup` and it will visualize your current repo. – Matt Mc Jun 19 '18 at 05:14

How to get birds eye view of git tree with just branch names, not individual commits?

4 Answers4