git-timeline

Timeline is a drop-in replacement for git-log which improves the readability of its output.

Usage

Timeline is a drop-in replacement for git log. So git timeline accepts ANY option supported by git-log.

Timeline has very few additional options. Learn them through git timeline -h.

Features

• Commit hashes, PR numbers and issue numbers are formatted as terminal hyperlinks to the hosting provider.
• Indication of some commit characteristics: An asterisk next to the hash means the commit is a merge; next to the author name means the author and committer have different names.
• One-line format including date (%ad) and author (%an).
• Pass-through of all opts/args to git-log.

Limitations

• This in a commit subject line breaks the format: </hernancerm.git-timeline.subject-line>
• Not tested in any way in Windows.

Installation

Note

Only macOS is supported through Homebrew. For Linux see the section below Build from source.

1. Add the Homebrew tap:

brew tap hernancerm/formulas https://github.com/hernancerm/formulas

2. Install Timeline:

brew install git-timeline

3. Verify installation by executing in a git repo:

git timeline

Optional: ~/.gitconfig: Create the below alias to shorten git timeline to git l.

[alias]
    l = timeline

Upgrade

1. Fetch the newest version of all formulas.

brew update

2. Upgrade Timeline.

brew upgrade git-timeline

Configuration

• Date format: Use the option --date as defined in the documentation of git-log.
• Pager command: Use the env var GIT_PAGER, core.pager from gitconfig or env var PAGER.

Build from source

The project is written in Java 21.

The steps below should work for macOS (arm64 and x86) and Linux (arm64 and x86).

Native binary

GraalVM Native Image is used to compile Java to a native binary.

1. Download the Java 21 JDK provided by GraalVM.

   Either do it manually through the website: https://www.graalvm.org/downloads/

   Or use SDKMAN! (https://sdkman.io/): sdk install java 21.0.8-graal

2. Set the env vars JAVA_HOME and GRAALVM_HOME (same value as JAVA_HOME).

3. On a clone of this repo run make bin.

The binary is created at ./target/git-timeline.

Execute it with ./target/git-timeline.

Uber JAR (executable JAR)

1. Download a Java 21 JDK.

2. Set the env var JAVA_HOME.

3. On a clone of this repo run make uber.

The uber JAR is created at ./target/git-timeline.jar.

Execute it with java -jar ./target/git-timeline.jar.

Versioning

Timeline does not follow semantic versioning.

• x.y. Here is what an increment on each part means:
  • x: At least one breaking change is included in the release.
  • y: Only non-breaking changes, of any kind, are included in the release.