Show full Git commit message in console

Question

I'm trying to output the full commit message in the console and I am able get the message, however in order to see the full message I have to keep resizing the console window in order to reveal more. I am on Windows using Cygwin.

The command I'm using is git log --pretty=full.

Answer 1

pagers to the rescue

git log | less 

Make sure you don't have -S on an alias for less

Also, it is generally considered good practice to limit the width for commit messages. I believe a common standard is 78 chars (IIRC), and most texteditors do a good job of ensuring such style rules (auto formatting your message).

Update: As a reference data point, git-config lists:

gui.commitmsgwidth

   Defines how wide the commit message window is in the git-gui(1). "75"     is the default. 

Answer 2

You can also use

git log --format=<format> [hash|HEAD] 

where <format> can be one of the following:

The placeholders are:

# see man git-log PRETTY FORMATS section %H: commit hash %h: abbreviated commit hash %T: tree hash %t: abbreviated tree hash %P: parent hashes %p: abbreviated parent hashes %an: author name %aN: author name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1)) %ae: author email %aE: author email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1)) %ad: author date (format respects --date= option) %aD: author date, RFC2822 style %ar: author date, relative %at: author date, UNIX timestamp %ai: author date, ISO 8601-like format %aI: author date, strict ISO 8601 format %cn: committer name %cN: committer name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1)) %ce: committer email %cE: committer email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1)) %cd: committer date (format respects --date= option) %cD: committer date, RFC2822 style %cr: committer date, relative %ct: committer date, UNIX timestamp %ci: committer date, ISO 8601-like format %cI: committer date, strict ISO 8601 format %d: ref names, like the --decorate option of git-log(1) %D: ref names without the " (", ")" wrapping. %e: encoding %s: subject %f: sanitized subject line, suitable for a filename %b: body %B: raw body (unwrapped subject and body) %N: commit notes %GG: raw verification message from GPG for a signed commit %G?: show "G" for a good (valid) signature, "B" for a bad signature, "U" for a good signature with unknown validity, "X" for a good signature that has expired, "Y" for a good signature made by an expired key, "R"            for a good signature made by a revoked key, "E" if the signature cannot be checked (e.g. missing key) and "N" for no signature %GS: show the name of the signer for a signed commit %GK: show the key used to sign a signed commit %gD: reflog selector, e.g., refs/stash@{1} or refs/stash@{2 minutes ago}; the format follows the rules described for the -g option. The portion before the @ is the refname as given on the command line (so git log            -g refs/heads/master would yield refs/heads/master@{0}). %gd: shortened reflog selector; same as %gD, but the refname portion is shortened for human readability (so refs/heads/master becomes just master). %gn: reflog identity name %gN: reflog identity name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1)) %ge: reflog identity email %gE: reflog identity email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1)) %gs: reflog subject %Cred: switch color to red %Cgreen: switch color to green %Cblue: switch color to blue %Creset: reset color %C(...): color specification, as described under Values in the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of git-config(1); adding auto, at the beginning will emit color only when colors are enabled for log output (by            color.diff, color.ui, or --color, and respecting the auto settings of the former if we are going to a terminal).  auto alone (i.e.  %C(auto)) will turn on auto coloring on the next placeholders until the color is            switched again. %m: left (<), right (>) or boundary (-) mark %n: newline %%: a raw % %x00: print a byte from a hex code %w([<w>[,<i1>[,<i2>]]]): switch line wrapping, like the -w option of git-shortlog(1). %<(<N>[,trunc|ltrunc|mtrunc]): make the next placeholder take at least N columns, padding spaces on the right if necessary. Optionally truncate at the beginning (ltrunc), the middle (mtrunc) or the end (trunc) if            the output is longer than N columns. Note that truncating only works correctly with N >= 2. %<|(<N>): make the next placeholder take at least until Nth columns, padding spaces on the right if necessary %>(<N>), %>|(<N>): similar to %<(<N>), %<|(<N>) respectively, but padding spaces on the left %>>(<N>), %>>|(<N>): similar to %>(<N>), %>|(<N>) respectively, except that if the next placeholder takes more spaces than given and there are spaces on its left, use those spaces %><(<N>), %><|(<N>): similar to % <(<N>), %<|(<N>) respectively, but padding both sides (i.e. the text is centered) -%(trailers): display the trailers of the body as interpreted by git-interpret-trailers(1) 

This gives you so much more control over what to extract. For example in my use-case I'm interested in the actual commit message so that I can run a post-commit hook.

# get the raw body of the commit git log --format=%B HEAD