Git: cannot see commit on git visual log

Question

I have been learning git by playing with its commands and reading stuff. Here is what I can see, I am expecting a graph similar to what I did on the right.

This is confusing, How should the tree look like because I cannot see my other commits? Why can't I see my commits?

Here is what I did:

• c08b318 Commited a file called README.md and pushed to master
• created a branch called somethingnew
• 643f1b0 modified README.md on somethingnew branch then commit the modified file
• checkout master branch did 2 commits 1029180 and ad34cc2
• Then moved checkout somethingnew created a new file called NewFile.txt and commited the file a526cd9

Answer 1

Try gitk --all, which will display all branches and tags in your repository.

By default, you're getting something like just the current branch's ancestry.

Answer 2

Git commit logs are local to the branch, so until a merge happens here - you won't see that commit in your visual log unless you have that branch checked out.

spiders-iMac:git-practice david$ git checkout master
spiders-iMac:git-practice david$ git log --oneline
f1aa76b Contents added to FileA
3c5a4fc Initial commit on master


spiders-iMac:git-practice david$ git checkout somethingnew
Switched to branch 'somethingnew'


spiders-iMac:git-practice david$ git log --oneline
187cd79 Merge branch 'master' into somethingnew
f1aa76b Contents added to FileA
a8fe187 Added FileB on branch somethingnew
3c5a4fc Initial commit on master


spiders-iMac:git-practice david$ git reflog
187cd79 HEAD@{0}: checkout: moving from master to somethingnew
f1aa76b HEAD@{1}: checkout: moving from somethingnew to master
187cd79 HEAD@{2}: checkout: moving from master to somethingnew
f1aa76b HEAD@{3}: checkout: moving from somethingnew to master
187cd79 HEAD@{4}: merge master: Merge made by the 'recursive' strategy.
a8fe187 HEAD@{5}: checkout: moving from master to somethingnew
f1aa76b HEAD@{6}: commit: Contents added to FileA
3c5a4fc HEAD@{7}: checkout: moving from somethingnew to master
a8fe187 HEAD@{8}: commit: Added FileB on branch somethingnew
3c5a4fc HEAD@{9}: checkout: moving from master to somethingnew
3c5a4fc HEAD@{10}: commit (initial): Initial commit on master
spiders-iMac:git-practice david$