git log & git show
Read the history
Lesson 4 of 20 · 8 min · Module 1: Your first repository
History is only useful if you can read it. Every commit has an author, a date, a message, and a unique name: its hash.
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By the end, you’ll be able to…
- Read git log and git log --oneline
- Filter the history by file
- Inspect one commit with git show
The idea
git log lists commits, newest first. git log --oneline shows one line each: the short hash and the message. git show displays one commit together with its changes; without arguments, it shows the latest. HEAD means the commit you are on and HEAD~1 the one before it. Add -- file at the end of git log to see only the commits that changed that file.
git log --oneline
git log --oneline -- style.css
git show HEAD~101Newest first
git log lists commits from the newest to the oldest. With --oneline you get the short hash and the message. The hash is the commit's unique name; its first seven characters are usually enough to refer to it.
git log --oneline4abfd2a (HEAD -> main) Say what the site is about
ac3e6fd Use a darker heading colour
bcd3497 Add about page, menu and README
9e3de74 Add home page and styles02Ask about one file
Put -- and a file name at the end to see only the commits that changed that file.
git log --oneline -- style.cssac3e6fd Use a darker heading colour
9e3de74 Add home page and styles03Look inside a commit
git show prints a commit with its diff: lines starting with - were removed and lines starting with + were added. HEAD is the commit you are on; HEAD~1 is the one before it.
git show HEAD~1commit ac3e6fdf86cc4a1f0362f268ef28d6e5f69a33fb
Author: Sam Rivera <[email protected]>
Date: Wed Oct 14 11:21:00 2026 +0000
Use a darker heading colour
diff --git a/style.css b/style.css
index b346392..60a5962 100644
--- a/style.css
+++ b/style.css
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
body { font-family: sans-serif; margin: 2rem; }
-h1 { color: #2f6f4e; }
+h1 { color: #1f3c88; }Your turn
style.css, and show in full the commit that changed the heading colour (it is HEAD~1, or use its hash). Who made it?What the checks look for
- Lists every commit, one per line
- Lists only the commits that changed style.css
- Shows Sam's commit in full
Take this with you
git log --oneline gives you the overview; git show tells the whole story of one commit.
Go a little further
Try git log --oneline --author=Sam and git log --stat, which lists the files each commit changed.