Example usages

| git log master...develop | inspect differences in branches |
| git rebase -i HEAD~3 | rebase last 3 commits |
| git reset --hard HEAD@{2} | undo last operation that changed HEAD |
| git checkout v2^{} | checkout the v2 tag (not v2 branch) |
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The 3rd argument in each of these commands is a gitrevision. These gitrevisions can be passed to many Git commands.

Common git revisions

Reference	Description
git show dae68e1	sha1
git show HEAD	reference
git show v1.0.0	tag
—	—
git show master	local branch
git show origin/master	remote branch
—	—
git show master~2	2 commits back from master
—	—
git show master..fix	reachable from fix but not master
git show master...fix	reachable from fix and master, but not both
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These are just the common ones, there’s a lot more below! (These work in many other commands, not just git show.)

Commits

| git checkout dae68e1 | sha1 |
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References

Example	Description
git checkout HEAD	reference
git checkout master	branch
git checkout v1.0.0	tag
—	—
git checkout origin/master	aka, refs/remotes/origin/master
git checkout heads/master	aka, refs/heads/master
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Searching back

Example	Description
git checkout master@{yesterday}	also 1 day ago, etc
git checkout master@{2}	2nd prior value
git checkout master@{push}	where master would push to
—	—
git checkout master^	parent commit
git checkout master^2	2nd parent, eg, what it merged
git checkout master~5	5 parents back
git checkout master^0	this commit; disambiguates from tags
—	—
git checkout v0.99.8^{tag}	can be commit, tag, tree, object
git checkout v0.99.8^{}	defaults to {tag}
—	—
git checkout ":/fix bug"	searches commit messages
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Other

| HEAD:README | … |
| 0:README | (0 to 3) … |

Ranges

Ranges

| git log master | reachable parents from master |
| git log ^master | exclude reachable parents from master |
| git log master..fix | reachable from fix but not master |
| git log master...fix | reachable from fix and master, but not both |
| git log HEAD^@ | parents of HEAD |
| git log HEAD^! | HEAD, then excluding parents’s ancestors |
| git log HEAD^{:/fix} | search previous HEADs matching criteria |
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Ranges illustration

A ─┬─ E ── F ── G   master
   │
   └─ B ── C ── D   fix

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| git log master..fix | BCD |
| git log master...fix | BCD and EFG |
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References

• Git Tools - Revision Selection (git-scm.com)
• gitrevisions(7) (kernel.org)