How to find the nearest parent of a Git branch?

Question

Let\'s say I have the following local repository with a commit tree like this:

master --> a
            \\
             \\
      develop c --> d
               


        

Answer 1

Anyone wanting to do this these days - Atlassian's SourceTree application shows you a great visual representation of how your branches relate to one another, i.e. Where they began and where they currently sit in the commit order (e.g. HEAD or 4 commits behind, etc.).