Re: Find the starting point of a local branch

[Woody Wu <narkewoody@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 11:09:58PM -0500, Seth Robertson wrote:
> 
> In message <20121224035825.GA17203@zuhnb712>, Woody Wu writes:
> 
>     How can I find out what's the staring reference point (a commit number
>     or tag name) of a locally created branch? I can use gitk to find out it
>     but this method is slow, I think there might be a command line to do it
>     quickly.
> 
> The answer is more complex than you probably suspected.
> 
> Technically, `git log --oneline mybranch | tail -n 1` will tell you
> the starting point of any branch.  But...I'm sure that isn't what you
> want to know.
> 
> You want to know "what commit was I at when I typed `git branch
> mybranch`"?  

Yes, this is exactly I want to know.

>The problem is git doesn't record this information and
> doesn't have the slightest clue.
> 
> But, you say, I can use `gitk` and see it.  See?  Right there.  That
> isn't (necessarily) the "starting point" of the branch, it is the
> place where your branch diverged from some other branch.  Git is
> actually quite able to tell you when the last time your branch
> diverged from some other branch.  `git merge-base mybranch master`
> will tell you this, and is probably the answer you were looking for.

This is not working to me since I have more than one local branch that
diverged from the master, and in fact, the branch I have in question was
diverged from another local branch.  With the method of 'git
merge-base', I have to remember a branch tree in my brain.

But thanks anyway, I see you guys's discussions and it's a little hard
to understand to me at the moment. Currently, I still have to use gitk
with narrowed outputs.


> Note that this is the *last* divergence.  If your branch diverged and
> merged previously that will not be reported.  Even worse, if you did a
> fast-forward merge (I recommend against them in general) then it is
> impossible to discover about what the independent pre-merge history
> was really like.
> 
> 					-Seth Robertson

-- 
woody
I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then.