cheatsheets/git-revisions.md

title	category	updated	description	intro
Git revisions	Git	2017-10-11		A list of revision specifications you can use with `git log` and many other Git commands. Summarized from `gitrevisions(7)` man page.

Example usages

| git log master...develop | inspect differences in branches | | git rebase -i HEAD~3 | rebase last 3 commits | | git reset --hard HEAD@{2} | undo last operation that changed HEAD | | git checkout v2^{} | checkout the v2 tag (not v2 branch) | {: .-mute-em}

The 3rd argument in each of these commands is a gitrevision. These gitrevisions can be passed to many Git commands.

Common git revisions

Reference	Description
git show dae68e1	sha1
git show HEAD	reference
git show v1.0.0	tag
---	---
git show master	local branch
git show origin/master	remote branch
---	---
git show master~2	2 commits back from master
---	---
git show master..fix	reachable from fix but not master
git show master...fix	reachable from fix and master, but not both
{: .-mute-em}

These are just the common ones, there's a lot more below! (These work in many other commands, not just git show.)

Reference

Commits

| git checkout dae68e1 | sha1 | {: .-mute-em}

References

Example	Description
git checkout HEAD	reference
git checkout master	branch
git checkout v1.0.0	tag
---	---
git checkout origin/master	aka, refs/remotes/origin/master
git checkout heads/master	aka, refs/heads/master
{: .-mute-em}

Searching back

Example	Description
git checkout master@{yesterday}	also 1 day ago, etc
git checkout master@{2}	2nd prior value
git checkout master@{push}	where master would push to
---	---
git checkout master^	parent commit
git checkout master^2	2nd parent, eg, what it merged
git checkout master~5	5 parents back
git checkout master^0	this commit; disambiguates from tags
---	---
git checkout v0.99.8^{tag}	can be commit, tag, tree, object
git checkout v0.99.8^{}	defaults to {tag}
---	---
git checkout ":/fix bug"	searches commit messages
{: .-mute-em}

Other

| HEAD:README | ... | | 0:README | (0 to 3) ... |

Ranges

Ranges

| git log master | reachable parents from master | | git log ^master | exclude reachable parents from master | | git log master..fix | reachable from fix but not master | | git log master...fix | reachable from fix and master, but not both | | git log HEAD^@ | parents of HEAD | | git log HEAD^! | HEAD, then excluding parents's ancestors | | git log HEAD^{:/fix} | search previous HEADs matching criteria | {: .-mute-em}

Ranges illustration

A ─┬─ E ── F ── G   master
   │
   └─ B ── C ── D   fix

{: .-box-chars.-setup}

| git log master..fix | BCD | | git log master...fix | BCD and EFG | {: .-mute-em}

References

• Git Tools - Revision Selection (git-scm.com)
• gitrevisions(7) (kernel.org)