Git: List git branches, sort by (and show) date

Question

How can I list git branches showing and sorting by their last commits' dates?

I've found this:

for k in `git branch | sed s/^..//`; do
    echo -e `git log -1 --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%ci %Cblue%cr%Creset" "$k"`\\t"$k";
done | sort -r

I'd expect plain git to have this feature. Does it?

I also found git show-branch --date-order but the output is something different.

How can this be older, when this was asked in 2012 and the other was asked in 2011? — Joe White, Nov 14 '17 at 19:49
All right, my bad. I was looking at the 2014 edit. Thx & appology — Ondra Žižka, Nov 15 '17 at 21:44

score 133 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '13 at 11:49

133

This appears to be a built-in way to achieve that (v1.7.4):

git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(committerdate:short) %(refname:short)'

answered Jun 06 '13 at 11:49

Will Sheppard

2

`git for-each-ref` was added in 1.4.4. – jthill Jun 06 '13 at 15:06
1

doesn't have an analog for remote branches that I can find though – Ry4an Brase Aug 31 '14 at 00:48
6

@Ry4an use `refs/remotes/` instead of `refs/heads/` – SQB May 13 '16 at 10:29
1

It seems that in Windows Command Prompt the `'` need to be changed to `"`. – Rikki Gibson Oct 07 '19 at 20:09
For remote branches the same syntax works: git branch -r --sort=-committerdate --format='%(committerdate:short) %(refname:short)' – Code Abominator Oct 23 '19 at 20:26
How about changing the sort from sooner to later? – edjm Feb 17 '21 at 19:51

score 30 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '17 at 12:13

30

I've enjoyed the @Will Sheppard solution to put some colors.

git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(color: red)%(committerdate:short) %(color: cyan)%(refname:short)'

answered Nov 14 '17 at 12:13

JmLavoier

@will's method works fine, but yours seems to act up on my git 183 branch (git-1.8.3.1-13.el7) . Check it, if you could? ```fatal: unknown field name: color: red``` – user2066657 May 29 '18 at 00:11
Works in git bash but from within some IDE like vscode gives fatal error @user2066657 – nilakantha singh deo Mar 08 '19 at 11:26
Doesn't work on Windows. – ΩmegaMan Mar 08 '21 at 22:12
1

Works on Windows if you replace `'` with `"` – bwmartens Oct 13 '21 at 18:58

2 Answers2