Personally, I think the default way the Git log is formatted is not the best: it's kind of verbose and doesn't show branch merges:
You can set up the log so that it's more concise and shows branch merges. Add an alias for that:
a) Open (or create) the file ~/.gitconfig
b) If the "[alias]" section is not in your file, then add it at the top of the file as "[alias]" without quotes
c) Below the "[alias]" section add the following:
l = log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold cyan)%aD%C(reset) %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset)%n'' %C( 13 white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)'
You just added a new alias that will show you a prettier and more concise Git log. Call it by typing git l in the terminal. Here is an example of how it should look:
What about showing a shorter version of the repo status, removing verbose text that is not super necessary? Here is an example of the verbose text that I’m referring to:
Let's add an alias for that, this alias is going to be called "st". Run the following command in the terminal:
$ git config --global alias.st "status --short --branch"
Now when you want to check your repo's status you can call as git st and get a more concise status. Here is an example of how it should look:
Let's say you want to see how the modifications you did to file "my_file.rb" in branch "my-branch" compare to the same file in branch "development". You can do from the terminal by calling: