How to get Git log with short stat in one line?

Question

Following command outputs following lines of text on console

git log --pretty=format:\"%h;%ai;%s\" --shortstat
ed6e0ab;2014-01-07 16:32:39 +0530;Foo
 3 files         


        

Answer 1

This is, unfortunately, impossible to achieve using only git log. One has to use other scripts to compensate for something most people aren't aware of: some commits don't have stats, even if they are not merges.

I have been working on a project that converts git log to JSON and to get it done I had to do what you need: get each commit, with stats, in one line. The project is called Gitlogg and you're welcome to tweak it to your needs: https://github.com/dreamyguy/gitlogg

Below is the relevant part of Gitlogg, that will get you close to what you'd like:

git log --all --no-merges --shortstat --reverse --pretty=format:'commits\tcommit_hash\t%H\tcommit_hash_abbreviated\t%h\ttree_hash\t%T\ttree_hash_abbreviated\t%t\tparent_hashes\t%P\tparent_hashes_abbreviated\t%p\tauthor_name\t%an\tauthor_name_mailmap\t%aN\tauthor_email\t%ae\tauthor_email_mailmap\t%aE\tauthor_date\t%ad\tauthor_date_RFC2822\t%aD\tauthor_date_relative\t%ar\tauthor_date_unix_timestamp\t%at\tauthor_date_iso_8601\t%ai\tauthor_date_iso_8601_strict\t%aI\tcommitter_name\t%cn\tcommitter_name_mailmap\t%cN\tcommitter_email\t%ce\tcommitter_email_mailmap\t%cE\tcommitter_date\t%cd\tcommitter_date_RFC2822\t%cD\tcommitter_date_relative\t%cr\tcommitter_date_unix_timestamp\t%ct\tcommitter_date_iso_8601\t%ci\tcommitter_date_iso_8601_strict\t%cI\tref_names\t%d\tref_names_no_wrapping\t%D\tencoding\t%e\tsubject\t%s\tsubject_sanitized\t%f\tcommit_notes\t%N\tstats\t' |
  sed '/^[ \t]*$/d' |               # remove all newlines/line-breaks, including those with empty spaces
  tr '\n' 'ò' |                     # convert newlines/line-breaks to a character, so we can manipulate it without much trouble
  tr '\r' 'ò' |                     # convert carriage returns to a character, so we can manipulate it without much trouble
  sed 's/tòcommits/tòòcommits/g' |  # because some commits have no stats, we have to create an extra line-break to make `paste -d ' ' - -` consistent
  tr 'ò' '\n' |                     # bring back all line-breaks
  sed '{
      N
      s/[)]\n\ncommits/)\
  commits/g
  }' |                              # some rogue mystical line-breaks need to go down to their knees and beg for mercy, which they're not getting
  paste -d ' ' - -                  # collapse lines so that the `shortstat` is merged with the rest of the commit data, on a single line

Note that I've used the tab character ( \t ) to separate fields as ; could have been used on the commit message.

Another important part of this script is that each line must begin with an unique string (in this case it's commits). That's because our script needs to know where the line begins. In fact, whatever comes after the git log command is there to compensate for the fact that some commits might not have stats.

But it strikes me that what you want to achieve is to have commits neatly outputted in a format you can reliably consume. Gitlogg is perfect for that! Some of its features are:

• Parse the git log of multiple repositories into one JSON file.
• Introduced repository key/value.
• Introduced files changed, insertions and deletions keys/values.
• Introduced impact key/value, which represents the cumulative changes for the commit (insertions - deletions).
• Sanitise double quotes " by converting them to single quotes ' on all values that allow or are created by user input, like subject.
• Nearly all the pretty=format: placeholders are available.
• Easily include / exclude which keys/values will be parsed to JSON by commenting out/uncommenting the available ones.
• Easy to read code that's thoroughly commented.
• Script execution feedback on console.
• Error handling (since path to repositories needs to be set correctly).

Success, the JSON was parsed and saved.

Error 001: path to repositories does not exist.

Error 002: path to repositories exists, but is empty.