22. Viewing diverging branches

Goals

  • Learn how to view diverging branches in a repository.

01 View current branches

We now have two diverging branches in the repository. Use the following log command to view the branches and how they diverge.

Run

git log --all --graph

Result

$ git log --all --graph
* ee16740 2023-11-28 | Added README (HEAD -> main) [Alexander Shvets]
| * 0ee0113 2023-11-28 | Renamed hello.html; moved style.css (style) [Alexander Shvets]
| * 903eb1d 2023-11-28 | Included stylesheet into hello.html [Alexander Shvets]
| * 555372e 2023-11-28 | Added css stylesheet [Alexander Shvets]
|/  
* 9288a33 2023-11-28 | Added copyright statement with email [Alexander Shvets]
* b7614c1 2023-11-28 | Added HTML header (tag: v1) [Alexander Shvets]
* 46afaff 2023-11-28 | Added standard HTML page tags (tag: v1-beta) [Alexander Shvets]
* 78433de 2023-11-28 | Added h1 tag [Alexander Shvets]
* 5836970 2023-11-28 | Initial commit [Alexander Shvets]

The --all flag guarantees that we see all the branches. By default, only the current branch is displayed.

The --graph option adds a simple commit tree represented with basic text lines. We see both branches (style and main) and that the branch main is marked as HEAD, meaning that it's current. The common ancestor to both branches is the branch where the "Added copyright statement with email" commit has been introduced.