Is there a git command to show new upstream commits after fetch?

Question

Is there some shortcut to specify the interval of fetched, new commits from remote tracking branch? Instead of typing this long command that is also branch specific:

git log branchName..origin/branchName

I am looking for some git interval hack, that will represent interval of branchName..origin/branchName, something like (not working, equivalent to git log ..origin/HEAD)

git log ..origin

Answer 1

This will do what you want, provided you have remote tracking configured for your branch:

git log ..@{u}

It will show all the commits on remotes/branch which are not already on your local branch. If you want to also see your local commits which have not been pushed, use three dots:

git log ...@{u}

Or if you want to see only your local commits which have not been pushed as of your last fetch, put the two dots after @{u}:

git log @{u}..

Explanation:

• @{u} is shorthand for `HEAD@{upstream}
  • master@{upstream} means the remote tracking branch for my local 'master' branch. master@{upstream} is the same as origin/master if your master branch is tracking the remote branch named master on the remote named origin.
  • If you omit the branch name (e.g. master) then your current branch is used instead.
  • upstream can be abbreviated to u in this case. So @{u} is the same as master@{upstream} if your current branch is named master.
• .. is used to specify a range of commits.
  • A..B is the same as ^A B which means show me all the commits in B but exclude those in A. It can also be written B --not A.
  • If you omit either reference, like A.. or ..B, then the omitted reference is presumed to be HEAD.
• You can see what your upstream tracking is configured to with git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name @{u}
• You can set your upstream tracking explicitly with git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master

You can find all the details about revision specifications like this in the Git man pages:

git help revisions  

Or

man gitrevisions