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The Git Extensions repository browser seems to be more versatile than gitk in many ways.

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However, my very favorite command line option for gitk is --all. gitk --all shows all commits, including ones not reachable by any branch or tag. This is very useful for understanding what actually happens in git. For instance after a rebase you can still see the original commits that have been copied and abandoned (and even return to them with reset).

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Is there any way to make Git Extensions browser behave like gitk --all and show even unreachable commits?

Klas Mellbourn
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3 Answers3

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At the risk of stating the now-obvious, as of 2018's 2.51.RC2 release and newer, commits that can be reached via the reflog can now be displayed in Git Extensions. I'm not sure if this is exactly the same as gitk --all, but it does display many additional commits that are otherwise unreachable.

It appears to use git log --reflog behind the scenes.

The pull request is here, and it was released with 2.51.RC2.

Image of the "Show reflog references" option in the View menu in Git Extensions

ojchase
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The answer to your question is no. However, you can open gitk --all, with a little work.

If you're willing to sacrifice performance, you can get some more information by changing the following in Settings > Settings > Git extensions > Performance. Check "show current working changes in revision graph". I've left that off and ended up using the Hotkeys settings tab.

  • Hotkeys > RevisionGrid. Make sure "ShowAllBranches" has a shortcut key. It usually is Ctrl+Shift+A.
  • Hotkeys > Browse. Make sure GitGitK has a shortcut key. I've used Ctrl+K. It brings up gitk from inside Git Extensions. However, you then have to view all branches manually, so I'm not sure how useful you'll find it on its own.
  • Finally, I think the one you'll really like is the Scripts tab. You will need to manually add a Gitk --all script there, but then you can assign a hotkey to it. You then have gitk --all from inside Git Extensions.

Have fun :)

Apparently, there is also a feature request that is 3 months old for precisely this ;)

Carl
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  • Thanks, but I already had "show current working changes in revision graph" and "ShowAllBranches" turned on, and the result is as above, no unreachable commits are shown. Using Script to bring up `gitk --all` from Git Extensions, was a creative idea, but it doesn't really make the Git Extensions browser itself behave as gitk --all :) – Klas Mellbourn Jun 17 '13 at 19:20
  • No it doesn't. But it does get you to a right-click or keyboard shortcut away from that view. Yes, it is an extra window, but apart from that, it doesn't look like its possible. – Carl Jun 18 '13 at 00:46
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Are you referring to something like "git reflog". That should show all of your commits that have been made, even if you accidentally do a reset later and lose previous commits. You can recover "lost" commits that way. I don't believe their is button in GIT extensions to show that information.

You usually have to do a git reflog in the command line to find the commit hash, then check out a branch with that hash. I have used that for recovering commits with merges gone bad before.

scottpetrovic
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