git ahead/behind info between master and branch?
git, github
Solution
Part 1
As an answer on your question 1, here's a trick I found to compare two branches and show how many commits each branch is ahead of the other (a more general answer on your question 1):
For local branches: `git rev-list --left-right --count master...test-branch`
For remote branches: `git rev-list --left-right --count origin/master...origin/test-branch`
This gives output like the following:
`2 1`
This output means: "Compared to `master`, `test-branch` is 1 commit ahead and 2 commits behind."
You can also compare local branches with remote branches, e.g. `origin/master...master` to find out how many commits a local branch (here `master`) is ahead/behind its remote counterpart.
Part 2
To answer the second part of your question, the solution depends on what exactly you want to achieve.
To view commits
In order to have `git rev-list` return the exact list of commits unique on either side, replace the `--count` argument with something like `--pretty=oneline`, making the complete command to execute:
git rev-list --left-right --pretty=oneline master...test-branch
This will generate output like this:
<bba27b56ad7072e281d529d4845e4edf877eb7d7 unique commit 2 on master
<dad0b69ec50ea57b076bfecabf2cc7c8a652bb6f unique commit 1 on master
>4bfad52fbcf0e60d78d06661d5c06b59c98ac8fd unique commit 1 on test-branch
Here every commit sha is preceded by `<` or `>` to indicate which branch it can be found on (left or right, here `master` or `test-branch` respectively).
To view code
If you want to view a diff of all new commits only found on either branch, you'll need to do this in two steps:
- define the most recent common ancestor
$ git merge-base master test-branch
c22faff7468d6d5caef217ac6b82f3ed95e9d902
- diff either branch to the commit sha obtained above (short format will usually do)
To show the diff of all commits only found on master
git diff c22faff7..master
To show the diff of all commits only found test-branch
git diff c22faff7..test-branch
Problem
I have created a branch for testing in my local repo (`test-branch`) which I pushed to `Github`. If I go to my `Github` account and select this `test-branch` it shows the info: ``` This branch is 1 commit ahead and 2 commits behind master ``` My questions are: - How can I display this info locally (ie: a command that shows this on the terminal, rather than having to open `Github` to see it)? I know I can see the diffs between branches using: ``` git diff master..test-branch ``` or using `Meld` (which I prefer): ``` git difftool master..test-branch ``` but I was wondering if there's a way to see the ahead and behind commits separately. I.E.: is there a way to show that 1 commit ahead by itself and then those 2 commits behind by themselves?