On a github project you can go to a /branches page and se pretty graphs like this one that for each branch show how far behind and how far ahead each branch is with respect
I've been curious about this as well, so i just whipped up a git branch-status script that gives this information using git for-each-ref
#!/bin/bash
# by http://github.com/jehiah
# this prints out some branch status (similar to the '... ahead' info you get from git status)
# example:
# $ git branch-status
# dns_check (ahead 1) | (behind 112) origin/master
# master (ahead 2) | (behind 0) origin/master
git for-each-ref --format="%(refname:short) %(upstream:short)" refs/heads | \
while read local remote
do
[ -z "$remote" ] && continue
git rev-list --left-right ${local}...${remote} -- 2>/dev/null >/tmp/git_upstream_status_delta || continue
LEFT_AHEAD=$(grep -c '^<' /tmp/git_upstream_status_delta)
RIGHT_AHEAD=$(grep -c '^>' /tmp/git_upstream_status_delta)
echo "$local (ahead $LEFT_AHEAD) | (behind $RIGHT_AHEAD) $remote"
done
Usage:
$ git branch-status
dns_check (ahead 1) | (behind 112) origin/master
master (ahead 2) | (behind 0) origin/master