# Explore the Git Log and Customize Visualizing.


Photo by Tikkho Maciel on Unsplash

## Hi everyone,

GUI tools make our work easier. Today, many people prefer the use of these tools. I always prefer terminal based systems instead of these interfaces. In particular, I don’t need to use any GUI in the **git** tool.

My friends often criticize my use of the terminal instead of the GUI. But I think the terminal environment is more flexible and useful.

My friends say that the GUI is a good option, especially for more comfortable observations of commitments. I will try to show you what we can do with the terminal against this situation.

I will elaborate with a few examples.

Firstly, we can check with
> git log — graph

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1610347067556/HIDSgLY1a.gif)

Another usage of git log is with **— decorate **and **— oneline** command. This commands show you a logs with oneline and decorated.
> git log — graph — decorate — oneline

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1610347070317/WGeIp0Z0n.gif)

More customizable command is like that
> git log — graph — full-history — all — color — pretty=format:”%x1b[31m%h%x09%x1b[32m%d%x1b[0m%x20%s"

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1610347073215/KcfifW-wk.gif)
> git log — graph — pretty=format:’%Cred%h%Creset %ad %s %C(yellow)%d%Creset %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset’ — date=short

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1610347076068/7MMZdU55I.gif)

You want to change how you want your pretty format. I will change format as below command.
> git log — graph — pretty=format:’%Cblue%h%Creset %ad %s %C(yellow)%d%Creset %C(bold red)<%an>%Creset’ — date=short

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1610347079423/NlKHTX4zT.gif)
> ***%H** →*commit hash
***%h** →*abbreviated commit hash
***%T** →*tree hash
***%t** →*abbreviated tree hash
***%P** →*parent hashes
***%p** →*abbreviated parent hashes
***%an** →*author name
***%aN** →*author name (respecting .mailmap, see [git-shortlog[1]](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog) or [git-blame[1]](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-blame))
***%ae **→*author email 
***%aE** →*author email (respecting .mailmap, see [git-shortlog[1]](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog) or [git-blame[1]](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-blame))
***%ad** →*author date (format respects — date= option)
***%aD** →*author date, RFC2822 style
***%ar** →*author date, relative
***%at **→*author date, UNIX timestamp
***%ai** →*author date, ISO 8601-like format
***%aI** →*author date, strict ISO 8601 format
***%cn** →*committer name

For more information about git log, you can visit its [official web page](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-log).

You can see full version of using git log, please check out [asciinema](https://asciinema.org/a/251391).
[**Git Custom Graph Usage**
*Git log using with graph and custom formats.*asciinema.org](https://asciinema.org/a/251391)

Using the terminal, I can print the screen in the format I want. In short this is ease of use for me.

I hope your thoughts about using the terminal have changed a bit.

Good works.