“git show” Command Examples – The Geek Diary

git show Command

git show is a powerful command in Git that allows you to display information about a specific commit. It is incredibly useful when trying to understand what changes have been made to a codebase over time. In this section, we will discuss how to use git show and the information it provides.

How to Use git show

To use git show, you'll need to have a Git repository set up on your computer, and you'll need to navigate to the repository using your command line interface (CLI). Once you're in the repository, you can enter the git show command followed by an optional commit hash or file name, depending on what information you want to see.

If you enter git show without any additional arguments, it will display information about the most recent commit. This includes the commit hash, author, date, and commit message.

If you want to view information about a specific commit, you can include the commit hash as an argument. For example, if the commit hash is abc123, you would enter git show abc123. This will display information about the specified commit, including the changes that were made.

If you want to view the changes made to a specific file in a commit, you can include the file name as an argument. For example, if you want to view the changes made to a file called example.py in a commit with the hash abc123, you would enter git show abc123 example.py.

Information Provided by git show

When you run git show, it will display the changes made in the commit, including the lines added and removed. It will also display a diff of the changes, which can be helpful for understanding exactly what was changed.

Additionally, git show provides other information about the commit, such as the commit message, author, and date. This information can be helpful for understanding the context in which the changes were made.

Benefits of git show

Using git show can bring many benefits when working on a project, whether you're working on it solo or as part of a team. It helps you stay up-to-date with what changes have been made and who made them, which can be incredibly helpful when trying to debug issues or understand the evolution of a codebase.

Conclusion

Overall, the git show command is a powerful tool for inspecting and understanding the changes made to a codebase over time. Its ability to display information about a specific commit, including the changes made and other metadata, makes it an essential command in the Git toolkit.

Useage

Sure, here is a more detailed example of how to use git show in a multi-stage use case:

1. First, you can use git log to get a list of all the commits made to your repository. This command will display the commit hash, author, date, and commit message for each commit. You can use this information to find the commit you want to inspect. For example, let's say you want to inspect the commit with the hash def456.
2. Once you have identified the commit you want to inspect, you can use the git show command to display information about that commit. Simply run git show def456 to display the changes made in that commit. This will display the diff of the changes, as well as other metadata such as the author and date.
3. If you want to see the changes made to a specific file in that commit, you can include the file name as an argument. For example, if you want to see the changes made to example.py, you would run git show def456 example.py. This will display the changes made to that file in that commit.