Viewing Status and History

Git provides commands to check the state of your repository and view the history of changes.

Checking Status

See what’s changed, staged, or untracked:

git status
# On branch main
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   modified:   file.txt
#
# Untracked files:
#   newfile.txt

Viewing Commit History

See all commits with full details:

git log
# commit a1b2c3d (HEAD -> main)
# Author: Your Name <[email protected]>
# Date:   Mon Sep 8 12:00:00 2026
#
#     Add login page

Compact Log View

Show one commit per line:

git log --oneline
# a1b2c3d Add login page
# b2c3d4e Initial commit

Limit results:

git log --oneline -5

Visualizing Branches

See branch relationships:

git log --graph

Best Practices

• Check status before committing
• Use git log --oneline for quick overview
• Use git log --graph to understand branch structure
• Review history regularly to understand project evolution

Common Mistakes

• Forgetting to check status before committing
• Not understanding the difference between staged and unstaged changes
• Ignoring untracked files that should be committed
• Not using branches for experimental work