{"id":1598,"date":"2022-01-21T11:14:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T10:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2022-01-21T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T10:14:09","slug":"git-reflog-vs-log-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/21\/git-reflog-vs-log-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"Git reflog vs. log differences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The biggest difference between Git reflog vs. Git log is that the log<\/strong><\/em> is a public accounting of the repository’s commit history while the reflog<\/em><\/strong> is a private<\/span>, workspace-specific accounting of the repo’s local commits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Git log is part of the Git repository and is replicated after a push, fetch or pull. In contrast, the Git reflog is not part of the replicated repo. A developer can’t examine a local repository’s reflog without having physical access to the computer where it is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use the\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>git log<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0command to view the log and use the\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>git reflog\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>command to view the reflog (<\/strong><\/span>It means only your personal commit<\/span><\/strong>).<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In more technical terms, the reflog is a file found in\u00a0.git\\logs\\refs\\heads<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0that tracks the history of local commits for a given branch and excludes any commits that were potentially pruned away through Git Garbage collection routines. In contrast, the Git log provides a branch’s historical traversal of commits that starts from the most recent commit and ends at the very first commit of the entire branch history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Git reflog vs. log similarities<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One of the reasons for the Git reflog vs. log confusion is the fact that the two components will often show an identical history, especially when a developer completes a number of local commits without a fetch or a pull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a look at the following example, which starts by\u00a0creating a Git repository<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and then performs three commits. Notice how the\u00a0git reflog\u00a0and\u00a0log\u00a0commands print out the exact same information:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$ git init\r\nInitialized empty Git repository in C:\/workspaces\/temp\/.git\/\r\n\r\n$ touch home.html\r\n$ git add .\r\n$ git commit -m \"First commit\"\r\n\r\n$ echo \"Small Change\" >> home.html\r\n$ git commit -a -m \"Second commit\"\r\n\r\n$ echo \"Another Change\" >> home.html\r\n$ git commit -a -m \"Third commit\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Let\u00b4s examine now both the log and reflog, you’ll notice how remarkably similar they look as they report the exact same commit history:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git log --pretty=oneline\r\n7abb321 (HEAD -> master) Third commit\r\ne1051e5 Second commit\r\n95d919c First commit\r\n\r\n$ git reflog\r\n7abb321 (HEAD -> master) HEAD@{0}: commit: Third commit\r\ne1051e5 HEAD@{1}: commit: Second commit\r\n95d919c HEAD@{2}: commit (initial): First commit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
How the Git reflog and log differ<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Based on the similar output above, it’s possible to conclude incorrectly that the Git log and reflog are essentially the same. To demonstrate how the two can differ, see what happens after a developer\u00a0hard resets<\/strong>, or changes the last Git commit message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here we change the last Git commit message:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git commit --amend -m \"3rd commit message\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
After a developer issues the command, reflog’s\u00a0private<\/em>\u00a0listing of local commits reveals four entries. Every local commit issued against the repository is included in the output of the\u00a0git reflog\u00a0command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git reflog\r\n88846c2 (HEAD -> master) HEAD@{0}: commit (amend): 3rd commit message\r\n7abb321 HEAD@{1}: commit: Third commit\r\ne1051e5 HEAD@{2}: commit: Second commit\r\n95d919c HEAD@{3}: commit (initial): First commit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
However, the\u00a0git log\u00a0command, which shows a\u00a0public<\/em>\u00a0view of the repository, doesn’t reveal any information about the\u00a0amended commit message<\/strong>. In this situation, we can now see how the Git log and reflog differ:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git log --pretty=oneline\r\n88846c (HEAD -> master) 3rd commit message\r\ne1051e Second commit\r\n95d919 First commit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
A reset example provides an even more pronounced Git relog vs. log difference<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git reset --hard 95d919c<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
After a hard reset takes the repository back to the first commit, the reflog will show the history of all five commits. The log will show only one and won’t have any reference to the amend, the reset or even the second and third commits. Here is the output of the\u00a0git reflog<\/em>\u00a0command after the reset:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git reflog\r\n95d919c (HEAD -> master) HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to 95d919c\r\n88846c2 HEAD@{1}: commit (amend): 3rd commit message\r\n7abb321 HEAD@{2}: commit: Third commit\r\ne1051e5 HEAD@{3}: commit: Second commit\r\n95d919c (HEAD -> master) HEAD@{4}: commit (initial): First commit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, the Git log<\/em> only shows one commit on the master branch:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git log --pretty=oneline\r\n95d919c (HEAD -> master) First commit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Clones, logs and reflogs<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
After a\u00a0repository is cloned , the log will output a full history of the repository, while the reflog mentions nothing other than the clone ( that\u00b4s normal, because reflog only mention the action\/change we made localy). Look at the following Git log and reflog example after a developer has cloned a GitHub repository:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the clone, the reflog is quite sparse:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git reflog\r\n46e70ce (HEAD -> master, origin\/master, origin\/HEAD) HEAD@{0}: clone<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
However, the\u00a0git log\u00a0command will show the entire history of the cloned Github\u00a0repository’s commits<\/strong>, which can span years and include hundreds of entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git log --pretty=oneline\r\n46e70c (HEAD -> master, origin\/master, origin\/HEAD) Add Spring Configuration Example Tutorial\r\nad128a Update pom.xml\r\na04781 Update pom.xml\r\nd816ba Update pom.xml\r\nfb73eb Delete DemoApplicationTests.java\r\ne14004 Create game.html\r\n66a9e7 more boot\r\n38a86d Merge branch 'master'\r\n17c3ca Added Score class with static variables\r\nd08cd7 Update WebController.java\r\nca01b6 added spring-ioc-example\r\n0bc3b9 adding a few\r\nf395f5 Update .gitignore \n.\n.\n.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PS: we can also view the reflog<\/em> via the\u00a0git log<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0command with the\u00a0–walk-reflogs<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0options parameter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ git log --pretty=oneline --walk-reflogs master\r\n95d919c (HEAD -> master) master@{0}: reset: moving to 95d919c\r\n88846c2 master@{1}: commit (amend): 3rd commit message\r\n7abb321 master@{2}: commit: Third commit\r\ne1051e5 master@{3}: commit: Second commit\r\n95d919c (HEAD -> master) master@{4}: commit (initial): First commit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Think about the reflog <\/strong><\/em>as a record of lapidary local commits, and the log<\/strong><\/em> as the shiny, clean history a repository publicly presents to onlookers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Reference:<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.theserverside.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The biggest difference between Git reflog vs. Git log is that the log is a public accounting of the repository’s commit history while the reflog is a private, workspace-specific accounting of the repo’s local commits. The Git log is part of the Git repository and is replicated after a push, fetch or pull. In contrast, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[459,462,458,456,455,457,461,460],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1600,"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions\/1600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}